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23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)  872-4503 


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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


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Technical  and  Bibliographic  IMotes/Notes  techniques  et  bibiiographiques 


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D 


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D 


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Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 


I — I    Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 


n 


D 


D 


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Bound  with  other  material/ 
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This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  filmd  au  taux  de  reduction  indiqu6  ci-dessous 

10X                            14X                             18X                            22X 

26X 

' 

30X 

; 

X 

12X 

16X 

20X 

wF 

28X 

32X 

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first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
» hall  contain  the  symbol  — ►  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
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Library  of  Congress 
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conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 

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papier  est  imprimde  sent  filmds  en  commen9ant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  seion  le  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  film6s  en  commengant  par  la 
premidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboies  suivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
dernidre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  seion  le 
cas:  le  symbole  — ►  signifie  "A  SUIVRE  ",  le 
symbols  y  signifie  "FIN '. 

Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  6tre 
film6s  d  des  taux  de  reduction  diff6rents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clich6,  il  est  film6  d  partir 
de  I'angle  sup6rieur  gauche,  de  gauche  d  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  ndcessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  mdthode. 


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RICARDUS  CORINENSIS : 


'i 


X 


A  LITERARY  MASKING  OF  THE  EIGHTEENTH 

CENTURY. 

BY  DANIEL  WILSOX,  LL.D., 
Professor  ofllistory  and  English  Literature,  University  Cuikge,  Toronto. 


Mr.  Richard  Gough,  in  his  introduction  to  the  "  Archajologia," 
vhich  wati  destined  to  be  the  enduring  repertory  of  English  Antiquities, 
labours  to  establish  a  becoming  age  for  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  itself. 
According  to  him,  that  brotherhood  of  antiquarian  devotees  had  its 
origin  in  the  great  era  of  religious  and  intellectual  revolution  to  which 
Queen  Elizabeth's  name  is  fitly  applied,  when  men  of  the  highest 
intellect,  possessed  by  the  new  ideas  of  the  age,  were  struggling  for  the 
world's  emancipation  from  the  thraldom  of  antiquity.  In  the  year 
1572,  a  few  eminent  English  scholars,  under  the  auspices  of  Arch- 
bishop Parker  and  Sir  Kobert  Cotton,  assembled  at  the  house  of  the 
latter,  and  formed  themselves  into  a  society  for  the  preservation  of  the 
ancient  monuments  of  their  country.  The  British  Museum  Library  is 
the  enduring  memorial  of  the  labours  of  one  of  those  conservators  of 
national  antiquities,  in  an  age  of  revolution.  But  it  is  to  a  far  different 
age,  and  to  a  very  diverse  reign,  we  must  turn,  for  the  actual  founda- 
tion of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries.  Not  in  the  earnest,  progressive  era 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  but  in  that  most  unearnest  of  centuries  with*which 
Queen  Anne's  name  is  fitly  associated :  a  body  of  gentlemen,  not  less 
zealous,  though  of  far  inferior  note  to  their  precursors  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  began  their  meetings,  in  1708,  in  the  Young  Devil  Tavern, 
Fleet  Street,  London ;  and  established  a  society  for  the  study  of 
antiquities,  which  has  since  rendered  valuable  service  to  letters  and 
national  history.  It  was  not,  however,  till  1718,  that  they  were 
thoroughly  organised,  with  a  staff  of  office-bearers,  and  a  regular  record 
of  their  proceedings.  But  from  this  we  learn  that  their  first  President  >i^ 
was  Peter  Le  Neve,  Esq.,  Norroy  King-at-Arms,  and  their  first  Secre* 


<u  ty-vyfr^vAlc 


\^i;.^ 


RIOARDUS  CORINENSIS. 


tary  Dr.  William  Stukeley,  a  fitting  type  of  the  antiquarian  enthusiast 
of  that  eighteenth  century.  Ho  was  still  a  layman,  a  Fellow  of  the 
College  of  Physicians,  devoted  to  the  study  of  the  natural  sciences,  a 
zealous  botanist,  an  ingenious  experimenter  in  chemistry,  and  an 
active  cooperator  in  many  curious  anatomical  dissections,  with  Stephen 
Hales,  n  fellow  member  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Cambridge. 

Dr.  Stukeley  settled  in  his  native  county  of  Lincolnshire  as  a 
medical  practitioner,  and  acquired  considerable  professional  reputation. 
But  soon  after  he  reached  his  fortieth  year,  his  own  health  began  to 
fail;  and,  on  the  persuasion,  it  is  said,  of  Archbishop  "Wake,  he  aban- 
doned the  medical  profession  and  took  orders.  Soon  after,  in  1729,  he 
was  presented,  by  the  Lord  Chancellor  King,  to  the  living  of  All  Saints, 
in  Stamford;  and  thenceforth  he  devoted  his  leisure  to  the  gratification 
of  his  favourite  taste  for  antiquarian  research.  Much  of  his  spare  time 
had  been  given  to  such  studies  even  in  earlier  years,  when  his  profes- 
sional training,  and  the  bent  of  his  friend  Hales'  tastes,  tempted  him 
in  other  directions.  So  early  as  1720,  he  published  "  An  Account  of 
a  Roman  Temple,  and  other  Antiquities  near  Graham's  Dike,  in  Scot- 
land :"  said  "  Roman  Temple"  being  the  famous  Arthur's  Oon,  a 
singular  bee-hive  structure  of  squared  masonry,  twenty-eight  feet  in 
diameter,  and  with  all  its  characteristics  pointing  to  a  very  difierent 
age  than  that  in  which  Roman  temples  were  reared.  A  hint  of  the 
Scottish  historian  George  Buchanan,  suflSced  for  the  theory  that  it  was 
the  Templum  Termini,  a  sacellum  reared  on  the  limits  of  Roman  rule. 
Dr.  Stukeley  giving  his  imagination  full  play,  conceived  of  it  as  the 
work  of  Agricola,  and  dedicated  to  Romulus,  the  parent  deity  of  Rome ; 
and  in  his  enthusiasm  pronounced  it  to  be  a  fac  simile  of  "  the  famous 
Pantheon  at  Rome,  betbre  the  noble  portico  was  added  to  it  by  Marcus 
Agrippa."  Other  works  followed  in  the  same  vein,  dealing  with  Stone- 
henge,  Abury,  the  Druids,  and  British  antiquities  in  general.  He 
could  use  his  pencil,  as  well  as  his  pen,  with  facility;  and  grudged  no 
outlay  in  the  issue  of  copiously  illustrated  folios  and  quartos,  according 
to  the  fashion  of  that  age.  Hence  his  reputation  was  extended  far  and 
wide,  as  one  foremost  among  the  antiquarian  authorities  of  his  day. 

But  Stukcley's  day  was  one  in  which  antiquarian  zeal  was  little  tem- 
pered by  critical  judgment,  The  historian  Gibbon,  while  turning  to 
account  his  "  Medallic  History  of  Marcus  Aurelius  Valerius  Carausius, 
Emperor  of  Britain,"  adds  in  a  note :  "  I  have  used  his  materials,  and 


t  '. 


■) 


% 


■rr" 


RICARDU8  C0UINENSI8. 


8 


I 


fl    ' 


I' 


V. 


! 


I 

i 


Tcjcited  most  of  his  fanciful  conjectures."  Few  writers  have  more 
widely  differed  in  every  mental  characteristic,  than  the  calm,  philoso- 
phic, sceptical  historian  of  "The  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Rouiiiii 
Empire,"  and  the  fanciful,  credulous,  but  enthusiastic  author  of  tlio 
"  Itinerarium  Curiosum."  lie  visited  Oxford,  in  September,  1724, 
and  one  of  its  fellows,  Thomas  Ilearnc,  has  recorded  the  fact  in 
his  Diary,  with  this  comment  on  bis  brother  antiquary:  "This 
Dr.  Stukeley  is  a  mighty  conceited  man,  and  it  is  observed  by  all  I 
talked  with  that  what  he  does  hath  no  manner  of  likeness  to  the  origi- 
nals.    Ho  goes  all  by  fancy In  short,  as  he  addicts  himself  to 

fancy  altogether,  what  he  does  must  have  no  regard  among  judicious 
and  truly  ingenuous  men."  A  biographer  in  the  "  Penny  Cyclopwdia" 
sums  up  his  character  in  this  fashion :  "  No  antiquarian  ever  had  so 
lively,  not  to  say  licentious  a  fancy  as  Stukeley.  The  idea  of  the 
obscure,  remote  past,  inflamed  him  like  a  passion.  Most  even  of  his 
descriptions  are  rather  visions  than  sober  relations  of  what  would  be 
perceived  by  an  ordinary  eye  j  and  never,  before  or  since,  were  such 
broad  continuous  webs  of  speculation  woven  out  of  littlo  more  than 
moonshine."  An  amiable  enthusiast  himself,  ho  was  well  fitted  to 
maintain  in  friendly  cooperation  the  fellowship  of  antiquaries  who,  in 
that  eighteenth  century,  set  themselves  to  work,  with  chavactcristic 
enthusiasm,  on  coins,  medals,  seals,  ancient  monuments,  records,  rolls, 
genealogies,  and  manuscripts  of  all  sorts ;  and  was  specially  noticeable 
among  the  antiquarian  fraternity,  as  one  to  whom  a  novice  in  the  craft 
might  turn  for  sympathy,  without  much  danger  of  being  troubled  by 
critical  doubts  or  questionings  as  to  the  genuineness  of  any  plausible 
antique  submitted  to  him.  He  was  accordingly  selected,  in  due  time, 
as  the  confidant  of  an  antiquarian  discoverer,  of  a  type  peculiar  to  that 
eighteenth  century ;  and  has  since  owed  his  chief  fame  to  the  part  he 
bore  in  the  marvellous  literary  disclosure. 

In  the  year  1743,  in  which  Dr.  Stukeley  published  his  learned  folio 
on  "Abury,  a  Temple  of  the  British  Druids,"  the  Princess  Louisa, 
youngest  daughter  of  George  II.,  was  married,  at  the  ago  of  nineteen, 
to  Frederick,  Crown  Prince  of  Denmark,  who,  within  less  than  three 
years  thereafter,  succeeded  his  father  on  the  throne  of  Denmark  and 
Norway,  by  the  title  of  Frederick  V.  The  English  princess  won  uni- 
versal good-will  by  her  simple,  unaffected  manners,  in  striking  contrast 
to  the  exclusiveness  and  formal  etiquette  which  had  prevailed  during 


;■< '. 


RIOARDUS  00RINEN8IS. 


thfl  previous  reign.  She  gave  an  heir  to  the  throno,  in  the  Crown 
Prince,  afterwards  Christian  VII.  j  but  within  two  years  the  Danes  had 
to  lament  her  death,  in  giving  birth  to  another  son. 

Among  the  attendants  who  constituted  the  retinue  of  this  royal 
daughter  of  England,  there  went  to  Copenhagen  one  Bertram,  a  silk 
dyer,  and  with  him,  if  not  earlier,  his  son,  Charles  Julius,  a  youth  who 
by-and-by  achieved  for  himself,  in  very  questionable  fashion,  a  notable 
reputation  among  European  scholars. 

The  age  was  one  of  much  literary  ingenuity,  and  of  not  a  little  suc- 
cessful imposture.  The  prevailing  ideas  in  reference  to  historical  evi- 
dence were  so  vague  and  crude,  that  the  most  barefaced  literary  frauds 
obtained  ready  acceptance  even  among  scholars  and  critics;  and  their 
exposure  brought  little  or  no  discredit  on  their  perpetrators.  One  well- 
known  example  of  literary  masquerading  will  suffice  to  illustrate  this 
curious  phase  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Lady  Wardlaw,  of  Pitreavie, 
the  wife  of  a  Scottish  Baronet,  found,  according  to  her  own  account,  in 
a  vault  of  Dunfermline  Abbey,  or  elsewhere,  an  ancient  manuscript 
containing  the  greater  part  of  the  heroic  ballad  of  "  Hardyknute." 
This  was  published  in  1719  as  a  genuine  antique,  at  the  joint  expense 
of  Lord  President  Forbes  and  Sir  Gilbert  Elliot,  of  Minto;  and  figured 
at  a  later  date,  in  Percy's  "  Reliqucs  of  Ancient  English  Poetry,"  as 
"  a  Scottish  fragment :  a  fine  morsel  of  heroic  poetry."  After  a  time 
some  less  credulous  critics  began  to  suspect  the  modern  authorship ; 
and  Lady  Wardlaw,  without  distinctly  admitting  it,  practically  con- 
firmed their  judgment  by  producing  additional  stanzas.  Still  later, 
Lord  Hailes  —  who  had  persisted  in  the  opinion  that  the  ballad  was 
ancient,  though  retouched  and  much  enlarged  by  its  professed  dis- 
coverer,— is  said  by  Bishop  Percy  to  have  communicated  extracts  of  a 
letter  from  Sir  John  Bruce,  of  Kinross,  the  year  after  his  death  in 
1766,  "  which  plainly  proved  the  pretended  discoverer  of  the  fragment 
of  Uardyhiuie  to  have  been  himself."  According  to  the  earlier 
accourt,  Lady  Wardlaw  "  pretended  she  had  found  this  poem,  written 
on  shreds  of  paper  employed  for  what  is  called  the  bottoms  of  clues/' 
But  Lord  Hailes  furnishes  this  quotation  from  the  letter  asserted  to 
have  been  addressed  by  Sir  3ohn  Bruce  to  Lord  Binning:  "I  send 
you  a  true  copy  of  the  manuscript  I  found  some  weeks  ago  in  a  vault 
at  Dunfermline.  It  is  written  on  vellum,  in  a  fair  gothio  character, 
but  so  much  defaced  by  time,  as  you'll  find,  that  the  tenth  part  is  not 


Croirn 
^nes  had 

[is  royal 
a  silk 
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notablo 


ry,"  as 


r/ 


RIOABDUS  OORINEMSIB.  0 

legible."  Sir  John  liruco,  a  brother-in-law  of  Lady  Wnrdlnw,  was 
already  in  his  grave,  so  no  questions  could  bo  asked.  Whoever  penned 
the  extract,  most  probably  meant  nine-tenths,  when  ho  referred  to  "the 
tenth  part."  But  to  whomsoever  its  authorship  bo  ascribed,  the  letter 
was  not  more  genuine  than  the  parchment  it  referred  to. 

The  poem  itself  had  long  before  issued  from  the  press  of  James  Wat- 
son, of  Edinburgh,  in  the  form  of  a  twolvo  page  folio  tract;  but  later 
editions  include  additional  stannas,  over  and  abovo  those  fir.^t  proiluccJ  by 
Lady  Wardlaw  in  practical  acknowledgment  ol  her  title  to  t!io  author- 
ship of  the  whole.  To  the  versatile  pen  of  this  littlc-hccded  Scottish 
poetess,  Dr.  Robert  Chamberj  has  since  ascribed  the  production  of  "Sir 
Patrick  Spous,"  "Gil  Morrice,"  "  Young  Waters,"  "  Gildcroy,"  and 
others :  the  cream  of  Scottish  ballads,  hitherto  regarded  as  genuine 
antiques,  and  printed  by  Percy  ab  such,  though  cjt  always  without 
unacknowledged  patchings,  or  variations  and  additions  on  the  authority 
of  his  ancient  folio  MS. 

Or  let  us  take  aa  example  among  tho  foremost  critics  of  that  day. 
The  hero  of  the  "  Dunciad,"  Lewis  Theobald,  had  his  revenge  on  his 
satirist,  by  publishing  a  critical  edition  of  Shakespeare's  dramas  which 
completely  eclipsed  that  of  Pope,  and  is  still  recognised  as  a  valuable 
addition  to  Shakesperiun  textual  criticism.  But  in  lt28,  he  printed, 
as  a  genuiae  play  of  Shakespeare,  recovered  from  an  original  manu- 
6oript:  "The  Double  Falsehood,"  a  worthless  production,  which  was 
nevertheless  introduced  on  tho  stage,  and  received  with  general  admira- 
tion. The  following  passage,  bo  foreign  alike  to  tho  style  and  rhythm 
of  Shakespeare,  was  specially  singled  out  for  general  commendation : — 

"  Strike  up,  my  mostcrB ; 
But  touch  the  strings  witli  a  religious  softness ; 
Toacli  sound  to  languish  through  the  night's  dull  ear, 
Till  melancholy  start  from  her  lazy  couch. 
And  carelessness  grow  convert  to  attention." 

The  vanity  of  the  real  author  was  not  proof  against  the  seductive 
applause  lavished  on  these  choice  lines.  He  confessed  that  they  were 
his  own,  but  at  the  same  time  persisted  in  accrediting  Shakespeare 
with  the  rest.  The  title  of  "The  Double  Falsehood"  most  aptly  pre- 
serves the  memory  of  this  characteristic  incident  in  the  history  of  the 
literature  of  a  period,  when  vanity,  and  a  craving  for  notoriety  on  an  y 
terms,  gave  birth  to  a  singular  brood  of  literary  bastards. 


6 


RICAHDUS  COHINENSia. 


In  striving  to  clucidttto  the  literary  history  of  that  period,  the  modern 
editor  gets  more  and  more  confounded  between  his  reluctance  to  believe 
that  Lords  and  Ladies,  Bishops,  Scholars,  Knights  and  Lord  Justices, 
deliberately  penned  forgeries,  and  persisted  in  contradictory  falsehoods: 
and  the  impossibility  of  deducing  from  their  statements  any  honest  ver- 
sion of  their  story.  Theobald,  iMacpherson,  Walpole,  Chatterton,  and 
others  of  minor  note,  nil  excited  the  interest  of  credulous  contemporarieg 
by  the  same  means,  until  such  forgeries  of  the  eighteenth  century  have 
como  to  constitute  a  highly  characteristic  department  of  the  literaturo 
of  that  ago. 

You.ig  I'crtntni  left  England  in  the  suite  of  the  Princess  Louisa,  at  a 
time  when  such  spurious  off-*pring  of  antiquarian  zeal  found  everywhere 
an  undoubting  welcome.  "  Ilardyknutc"  was  then  in  as  high  esteem 
as  the  "  Nibolungcn  Lied"  was  destined  to  bo  j  though  the  first  instal- 
ment of  that  genuine  Germanic  Iliad,  printed  in  1757,  attracted  little 
attention.  For  years  after,  whatever  interest  he  maintained  in  tho  lite- 
rature of  his  native  land,  was  rewarded  by  the  perusal  of  ballads,  heroic 
epics,  and  other  products  of  the  same  mint,  possessing  at  times  genuine 
merit  of  their  own  j  but  deriving  a  fictitious  value,  to  which  their  chief 
importance  was  due,  from  somo  romantic  story  of  recovered  parchment,  or 
antique  record.  There  was  nothing  of  tho  poet  in  the  boy :  or  a  Norse 
Saga,  after  the  model  of  "  Hardyknute,"  would  have  been  the  fittest 
discovery  among  the  archives  of  Copenhagen ;  but  he  had  the  ambition 
to  rank  among  the  discoverers  of  his  day,  and  achieved  his  triumph  in 
a  more  enduring  fashion.  The  genuineness  of  his  professed  discovery 
remained  unchallenged  for  nearly  a  century,  nor  is  it  wholly  discredited 
even  now.  15ut  its  reputation  was  chiefly  associated  with  its  English 
editor,  and  little  can  bo  ascertained  relating  to  its  discoverer,  beyond 
what  Dr.  Stukclcy  has  put  on  record.  Slight,  however,  as  are  the 
additions  recoverable,  they  are  sufficient  to  give  a  novel  aspect  to  tho 
history  of  the  most  mischievous  of  all  the  literary  forgeries  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century. 

When  the  boy  poet  Chatterton  set  to  work,  after  the  fashion  of  his 
age,  on  the  creation  of  fifteenth  century  epics  and  interludes,  his  old 
poet-priest,  Rowley,  was  as  genuine  an  oflFspring  of  his  invention  as  the 
poems  ascribed  to  his  pen.  But  the  imaginative  faculty  was  weak  in 
Bertram ;  and  it  better  suited  the  purpose  he  had  in  view  to  invent,  for 
an  actual  chronicler  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  spurious  contributioD 


,>li. 


at  a 


niOARDUa  COUINENSIS.  7 

to  Roman  history,  which,  with  tho  aid  of  his  namu,  obtained  such  uni- 
vorsal  and  enduring  orodenuo. 

Ill  tho  year  1350,  when  Abbot  Nicholas  do  Lythington  ruled  over 
tho  licnediotino  IMonastory  of  St.  I'otcr,  Westminster,  llichiird  of 
Cirencester,  a  native  of  tho  ancient  city  In  Glouccstcrshiro  from 
whence  his  name  is  derived,  entered  that  .Afonnstcry,  at  an  early  ago. 
Hence,  when  tho  fume  of  his  literary  labours  had  {:;ivon  importance  to 
his  name,  ho  was  sometimes  referred  to  as  tho  Monk  of  Westminster. 
Nothing  is  known  of  his  family;  though  it  has  boon  inferred  from  tho 
education  ho  had  received,  in  an  ago  when  facilities  for  tho  attain- 
ment of  any  high  intellectual  culture  wore  beyond  tho  reach  of  tho 
people  at  largo,  that  his  relatives  must  have  belonged  to  a  superior 
rank  in  society.  Education,  however,  was  then  exclusively  in  tho 
hands  of  tho  Church ;  and  ho  may  havo  been  admitted  to  the  enjoy- 
ment of  its  advantages  in  return  for  his  own  eager  desire  for  know- 
ledge. Ilis  name  occurs  in  documents  of  various  dates,  pertaining  to 
the  monastery,  up  to  tho  closing  year  of  tho  century.  He  obtained  in 
1391,  a  licence  to  visit  Rome,  from  Abbot  William,  of  Colchester,  who 
records  therein  the  virtues  and  piety  of  the  literary  monk,  and  his 
regularity  in  fulSlling  all  tho  requirements  of  Rencdictino  rule.  Ho 
appears  to  have  been  an  inmate  of  the  Abbey  infirmary  in  1401,  where 
he  died  in  that  or  tho  following  year;  and  doubtless  his  ashes  lie  in 
the  neighbouring  cloisters,  outsido  that  Poet's  Corner  to  which  tho 
ambition  of  England's  later  generations  of  literary  men  turns  in  seeking 
for  death's  rarest  honours.  The  genuine  historical  work  of  Richard 
of  Cirencester  is  his  "  Speculum  Historialo  do  Gestis  regum  Angliie." 
His  other  authentic  works  are  theological ;  his  "  Tractatus  super  Syui- 
bolum  Majus  at  Minus;"  and  his  "  Liber  do  OiBciis  Ecclcsiasticis." 
But  whatever  rightful  merit  pertained  to  him,  has  been  eclipsed  by  tho 
spurious  reputRtion  which  has  attached  to  his  name  since  tho  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  as  a  monk  of  such  enlightened  zeal,  as  tu 
have  ransacked  the  libraries  and  ecclesiastical  establishments  of  Eng- 
land, and  explored  its  ancient  remains,  with  a  view  to  the  elucidation  of 
Roman  Britain. 

The  fault  of  the  Tractate,  viewed  simply  as  an  ingenious  invention, 
is  that  it  is  too  good  for  what  it  professes  to  be.  To  Whitaker,  Roy, 
Pinkerton,  Chalmers,  and  all  later  Roman  antiquaries,  the  idea  of 
being  able  to  retrace  the  Watling,  Iknield,  or  Errayn  Street,  and 


8 


RI0ARDU8  OORINCNBIi, 


royiow  thoir  ravonrito  o'jccta  of  study  undor  the  guidance  of  an 
intcllinont  observer  of  the  fourfocnth  century,  wns  poiwesucd  of  too 
fascinating  o  charm  to  bo  lightly  rcjootc('.     Dr.  Uruce  Ncarchos  in  Tain 
for  any  trnco,  olong  tho  lino  of  tho  Ilomnn  Woll,  of  what  was  abun- 
dantly manifest  to  lid  ""ley  littlo  more  thnn  n  century  before.     What 
would  ho  not  give  to  ki  iw  how  it  looked  to  iho  eyes  of  tho  good 
monk,  Richard,  in  tho  ycur  13r)0,  before  tho  waste  of  five  centuries 
ha<l  done  its  work.     To  nil  nppcnrnnce  this  wns  tho  grand  consumma- 
tion actually   nliicvod    I'nr  Kiifzlish   nntirmn     .'    by   tbn  dincovcry  nt 
C'oponhagon,  in  1747,  of  tho  MS.  trcatiHo  •'  l)o  Hitu  Britnnniro,"  to 
whiuh  Richard  of  Cirencester  has  ever  since  owed  his  celebrity.     If  ho 
did  8urpa.sfl  himself,  it  was  duo  to  the  virtue  of  his  thonio  and  the 
character  of  his  guides.     Whitakor  thus  expresses  tho  feelings  begot 
in   his  mind  by  a  comparison  of  tho  novel   treatise  with  Richard's 
genuine  history  of  IJritain  from  tho  days  of  Hcngist :  "  tho  hope  of 
meeting  with  disoovorics  os  groat  in  tho  British  and  Saxon  history, 
OS  he  has  given  us  concerning  tho  previous  period,  induced  me  to 
examine  the  work.     But  my  expectations  were  greatly  disappointed. 
Tiio  learned  scholar  and  tho  deep  antiquarian  I  found  sunk  into  an 
ignorant  novice,  sometimes  tho  copier  of  Huntingdon,  but  gencrolly 
tho  transcriber  of  Geoffrey.     I^eprived  of  his  Roman  guides,  Richard 
showed  himself  as  ignorant  and  as  injudicious  as  any  of  his  illiterate 
contemporaries  about  him."     Yet  for  all  this,  not  tho  slightest  sus- 
picion of  fraud  seems  to  have  suggested  itself  to  the  acutest  of  each 
critics. 

Dr.  Stukeley  was  still  residing  at  his  Lincolnshire  parsonage,  when, 
as  ho  tells  us,  in  tho  summer  of  1747,  ho  "  received  a  letter  fro™ 
Chailes  Julius  Bertram,  Professor  of  tho  English  tongue  in  the  Royal 
Marine  Academy  of  Copenhagen,  a  person  unknown  to  me.  The  letter 
was  polite,  full  of  compliments,  as  usual  with  foreigners ;  expressing 
much  candor  and  respect  to  mo  :  being  only  acquainted  with  some 
works  (if  mine  published.  Tho  letter  was  dated  tho  year  before  ;  for 
nil  thai  time  he  hesitated  in  sending  it.  Soon  after  my  receiving  it,  I 
sent  a  civil  answer;  which  produced  another  letter,  with  a  prolix  and 
elaborate  Latin  epistle  enclosed,  from  the  famous  Mr.  Gramm,  privy- 
coun.sellor  and  chief  librarian  to  his  Danish  Majesty  :  a  learned  gentle- 
man who  had  been  in  England,  and  visited  our  Universities.  He  was 
Mr.  Bertram's  great  feiend  and  patron.     I  answered  that  letter,  and  it 


■I'M 


ll 


ill:. 


niCABDUS  C0RINENHT8. 


9 


crciitf'il  a  corroBpondenco  between  us,  Ainonp;  other  iiinltnrH,  Mr. 
Dortruin  mentioned  a  mnnusoript,  in  a  frionil'M  Imndn,  of  Iliohard  of 
WeHtminxter,  being  a  history  of  lloinnn  Hritnin,  which  ho  tliouj^ht  a 
great  curiosity;  and  an  ancient  map  of  the  i>dand  nnnaxcd." 

Nothing  could  bo  better  devised  for  Hccurin;»  a  reception  to  iho 
reputed  discovery.  Kvoty  nook  and  cranny  of  Uoman  Kn^linid  had 
already  been  ranwiekod  with  lovin;;  zeal  by  the  Liticohisliiro  aniii|uaryj 
iraai,'ination  bad  boon  called  in  wlicro  facts  failed,  to  eku  out  a  coherent 
narrative;  but  still  muci.  rctnaiii'd  ob^'curo,  I'ut  here  w:is  the  pulitcly 
approoiativo  foreign  mivant.  full  of  respect  for  the  Doctor  and  praise  of 
his  works;  and,  in  the  midst  of  all  Iiis  pleasant  "  candour  and  respect," 
dropping  inoidentully  the  hint  of  a  recovered  history  of  Roman  IJritain, 
an  it  presented  itself  to  the  eyes  of  an  antiquarian  brother  of  the 
jionodietino  ^lonastory  of  St.  Peter,  in  the  year  I'SriO,  with  all  that  the 
vrasto  of  five  centuries  had  since  defaced  and  obliterated. 

Soon  aflor  the  receipt  of  IJortram's  first  letter.  Dr.  Stukcley  was 
presented  to  tho  Rectory  of  St.  Ooorgo  the  Martyr,  Queen  Square, 
London ;  and  so  was  permanently  established  within  easy  access  to  his 
favourite  literary  associates,  whoso  meetings  were  now  held  in  tho 
Mitre  Tavern,  Fleet  Street,  until  their  removal,  in  1753,  to  a  house  of 
their  own  in  Chancery  Lane.  Tho  stimulus  of  such  society  speedily 
manifested  its  influence.  He  had  not,  apparently,  while  resident  at 
Stamford,  fully  appreciated  the  advantages  of  a  history  of  Roman  Britain, 
as  studied  by  an  observer  of  tho  fourteenth  century;  or  been,  as  ho  .says, 
"solicitous  about  Richard  of  Westminster."  But,  (h  he  writes  In 
1747,  "  in  November,  that  year,  the  Duke  of  Montagu,  who  was 
pleas'd  to  have  a  favour  for  me,  drew  mo  from  a  beloved  retiretnont, 
■where  I  proposed  to  spend  tho  remainder  of  my  life ; "  and  so  ho  gucs 
on  to  state :  "  when  I  became  fix'd  in  London,  I  thought  it  proper  to 
cultivate  my  Copenhagen  correspondence,  and  I  received  another  Latin 
letter  from  Mr.  Oramm ;  and  soon  after  an  account  of  his  death,  and  a 
print  of  him  in  profile." 

Of  his  Danish  Majesty's  privy-counsellor  and  chief  librarian,  a  word 
or  two  more  may  be  needful  before  the  close ;  but  it  was  not  till  after 
tho  news  of  his  deaili  that  the  correspondence  with  Bertram  was  renew- 
ed, and  his  great  literary  discovery  actually  transcribed.  The  discus- 
sions with  the  Gales,  Talman,  Vertuc,  and  other  antiquaries  at  the  Mitre 
meetings,  soon  fanned  the  old  zeal  into  renewed  fervour ;  and,  as  Dr. 
Stukeley  tolls  us,  he  "  began  to  think  of  the  manuscript,  and  desired 


/;■/ 


10 


KIOABDUS  C0RINEN8I8. 


some  little  extract  from  it  j  then  an  imitation  of  the  hand-wviting, 
which  I  showed  to  my  late  friend,  Mr.  Caslcy,  Keeper  in  the  Cotton 
Library,  who  immediately  pronounced  it  to  be  400  years  old.  I  pressed 
Mr.  Bertram  to  get  the  manuscript  into  his  hands,  if  possible  ;  which 
at  length,  with  some  diflSculty  he  accomplished ;  and  on  my  solicitation 
sent  me,  in  letters,  a  transcript  of  the  whole,  and  at  last  a  copy  of  the 
map  :  he  having  an  excellent  hand  in  drawing.  Upon  perusal,  I 
seriously  solicited  him  to  print  it,  as  the  greatest  treasure  we  now  can 
boast  of  in  this  kind  of  learning." 

The  date  of  the  reception  of  the  completed  transcript  and  map,  we 
learn  from  Dr.  Stukeley's  Journal,  extracts  from  which  appeared  in  the 
Gentleman's  Magazine  for  August,  1835.  He  thus  writes,  under  date, 
March  1st,  174:8-9  :  "  I  ree'd  from  my  friend,  Jlr.  Bertram  of  Copen- 
hagen, a  copy  of  his  curious  IMS.  of  Ric'us  Westmonasteriensis  with 
the  map— t'is  a  most  valuable  curiosity  to  the  antiquitys  of  Brittan, 
being  compiled  out  of  old  manuscripts  in  Westminster  Library,  now 
lost ;"  and  by  the  31st  of  the  same  month  he  is  able  to  record  in  his 
journal :  "  I  finished  the  translation  of  liicardus  Westmonasteriensis." 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  cause  of  Dr.  Stukeley's  indifference 
on  first  receiving  Bertram's  hint  of  his  reputed  discovery,  his  zeal  now 
became  unbounded ;  and  the  reception  of  his  labours  by  European 
scholars  and  historians  left  him  no  reason  to  doubt  that  it  was  ex- 
pended in  a  worthy  cause.  In  1757,  he  published  the  "  Itinerary," 
with  an  abstract  of  the  remaining  portions  of  the  work.  In  professed 
obedience  to  his  urgent  entreaties,  Bertram  himself,  in  the  following 
year,  put  the  whole  to  press,  and  published  at  Copenhagen,  a  volume 
in  which  Richard  figures  alongside  of  Gildas  and  Nennius,  under  the 
title  "  Britannicarum  Gentium  Historia;  Antiqua)  Scriptures  tres :  Ricar- 
dus  Corinensis,  Gildas  Badonicus,  Nennius  Banchorensis,  &c."  The 
book  was  in  immediate  demand,  and,  if  only  genuine, — which  nobody 
then  doubted, — well  merited  the  most  careful  study. 

The  Itinerary  contains  eighteen  Itei-s,  professedly  compiled  by  Richard 
from  certain  fragments  written  by  a  Roman  General, — supposed  by 
Stukeley,  in  defiance  of  all  possibilities,  to  have  been  Agricola  j — and 
from  Ptolemy  and  other  authors.  Richard,  indeed,  in  a  style  won- 
derfully unlike  that  of  a  monkish  historian,  takes  credit  to  himsolf  for 
having  altered  the  work,  as  he  hopes  for  the  better,  with  their  assistance. 
The  Itinerary  of  Antoninus,  the  most  ample  record  on  the  subject, 
contains  references  to  one  hi:ndred  and  thirteen  Roman  stations,  while 


A, 


BICAEDU8  C0RINENSI8. 


11 


10  hand-writing, 
r  in  the  Cotton 
old.  I  pressed 
)ossiblo ;  which 
1  my  solicitation 
it  a.  copy  of  the 
Ipon  perusal,  I 
ire  we  now  can 

3t  and  map,  we 
appeared  in  the 
ites,  under  date, 
rtram  of  Copen- 
asteriensis  with 
itys  of  Brittan, 
r  Library,  now 

0  record  in  his 
lonasteriensis," 
fa  indifference 
7,  his  zeal  now 
3  by  European 
that  it  was  ex- 
le  "  Itinerary," 

In  professed 
the  following 
agen,  a  volume 
lius,  under  the 
res  tres :  Ricar- 
iis,  &c."  The 
-which  nobody 

iled  by  Richard 
— supposed  by 
Igricola ; — and 

1  a  style  won- 
to  himsolf  for 

heir  assistance, 
a  the  subject, 
stations,  while 


;  I 


Richard  mentions  one  hundred  and  seventy-six.  To  the  Scottish 
antiquary  his  additions  are  peculiarly  tempting :  for  he  fills  up  the 
whole  map  of  Roman  Scotland  to  the  Moray  Firth,  and  plants  a  rauni- 
cipium  on  the  site  of  Inverness.  No  wonder  that  the  Copenhngcn 
edition  soon  became  scarce.  A  third  edition,  forming  part  of  Dr. 
Stukeley's  "Itinerarium  Curiosum"  in  two  amply  illustrated  folio 
volumes,  was  issued  after  his  death.  In  1809,  Hatcher  published  ano- 
ther edition,  with  a  translation,  commentary,  maps,  and  fac-simile  of 
the  MS.  A  reprint  of  this  followed  in  1841 ;  and  so  recently  as  1848, 
it  was  once  more  reproduced,  as  one  of  "  Six  Old  English  Chronicles," 
edited,  with  illustrative  notes,  for  "Rohn's  Antiquarian  Library,"  by 
J.  A.  Giles,  D.C.L.,  late  Fellow  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford  : 
\7ithout  a  hint  of  any  suspicion  of  its  genuineness. 

The  time  for  challenge  had  seemingly  gore  by.  Authenticated  by 
Gibbon  and  other  historians;  by  Whitaker,  Roy,  and  the  whole  fellow- 
ship of  antiquaries:  it  seemed  bcGtting  later  edilors  to  elucidate  tho 
text,  with  no  further  challenge  than  consisted  with  the  probable  short- 
comings of  a  monkish  antiquary  of  the  middle  ages.  Yet  the  history 
of  the  original  discovery  curiously  illustrates  the  uncritical  credulity  of 
that  eighteenth  century.  Bertram,  an  unknown  foreigner,  informed 
Stukeley  of  the  MS.  as  then  "  in  a  friend's  hand."  By-and-by  ho  is 
able  to  state  that,  not  without  some  difficulty,  it  has  been  transferred 
from  its  nameless  owner  to  himself  His  friend  imd  patron,  the  privy- 
councillor  Gramm,  possibly  left  on  the  mind  of  Dr.  Stukeley  the  im- 
pression, after  perusal  of  his  "  prolix  and  elaborate  Latin  cpi.stle,"  that 
he  had  seen  it.  Rut  the  privy-councillor  died  before  the  MS.  was 
transcribed;  Bertram  himself  died  in  1705,  and  nobody  from  that  day 
till  this  ever  saw  it,  or  hejrd  of  any  one  who  had  done  so. 

Nevertheless,  this  work  continued,  for  nearly  a  century,  to  be  regarded 
among  British  scholars  as  the  indispensable  hand-book  of  the  Roman 
antiquary,  and  still  forms  a  part  of  some  of  his  most  useful  text-books. 
Mr.  Ackcrman  has  printed  it  in  his  "  Archreological  Index,"  as  tho 
legitimate  sequence  to  Ptolemy,  Antoninus,  and  the  Notitia.  Still 
later,  Mr.  Thomas  Wright  has  followed  his  example,  and  in  the  appen- 
dix to  his  "  Celt,  Roman,  and  Saxon,"  after  giving  the  portion  of  tho 
Antonine  Itinerary  relating  to  Britain,  he  adds  in  succession  the 
"Itinerary  of  Richard,"  and  tho  "Ravenna  List."  When  his  edition 
of  1852  appeared,  the  authority  of  Richard's  Tractate  had  become  mat- 
ter of  discussion,  and  so  the  author  inserts  a  saving  clause  to  lighten 


•* 

rf 


y ' 


12 


EI0ARDU8  COBINENSIS. 


his  critical  responsibility.  Richard's  description  of  Britain,  he  says, 
"  appears  to  be  made  up  of  very  discordant  materials.  How  much  was 
really  the  work  of  a  monk  of  Westminster,  and  how  much  we  owe  to 
the  modern  editor,  Bertram  of  Copenhagen,  it  is  not  easy  to  say,  for 
the  manuscript  has  very  strangely  disappeared.  It  appears,  however, 
that  the  old  monk  had  before  him  a  Roman  itinerary  similar  to  that  of 
Antoninus,  or  perhaps  a  map,  from  which  he  extracted  the  part  rela- 
ting to  Uritain.  That  this  Itinerary  was  not  invented  by  Bertram 
f,  jms  clear  from  the  circumstance  that  his  roads,  though  they  are  not 
always  the  same  as  those  in  Antoninus,  have  been  traced  where  he 
traces  them,  and  that  their  existence  was  certainly  not  known  in  Ber- 
tram's time;"  and  so  having  thus  asserted  thts  genuineness  of  the 
Itinerary,  he  proceeds  to  insert  it  as  the  legitimate  link  between  that 
ascribed  to  Antoninus  Augustus,  assigned  to  A.D.  320,  and  another 
derived  from  the  Cosmography  of  the  anonymous  writer  of  Ravenna, 
compiled  not  later  than  the  seventh  century. 

This  process  of  inserting  the  spurious  document  between  two 
genuine  ones  was  first  adopted  by  Bertram  himself;  and,  while  the 
authentic  Gildas  and  Nennius,  selected  by  him  for  the  purpose,  gave 
an  air  of  genuineness  to  their  new  found  associate ;  the  reputed  monk- 
ish antiquary  of  the  fourteenth  century  appeared  to  no  slight  advantage 
alongside  of  those  credulous  Celtic  chroniclers.  But,  in  reality  the 
forging  of  such  an  Itinerary  as  Bertram  produced  required  neither 
learning  nor  ingenuity.  "  It  appears  that  the  old  monk  had  before 
him  a  Roman  itinerary  similar  to  that  of  Antoninus,"  says  the  author 
of  the  "  Celt,  Roman,  and  Saxon,"  and  so  it  "seems  clear"  to  him 
that  Bertram  could  not  have  invented  it.  But  what  if  Bertram,  him- 
self, had  the  Antonine  Itinerary  before  him,  along  with  any  map  of 
Roman  Britain,  the  feat  of  making  such  a  one  as  he  produced  to  Dr. 
Stukeley  lay  within  the  compass  of  any  ordinary  school  boy's  capacity 
for  invention.  The  Itinerary  is  nothing  more  than  a  series  of  local 
names,  arranged  in  columns,  in  geographical  sequence,  with  the  dis- 
tances in  thousand  paces,  stated  in  Roman  numerals  :  though  this 
indispensable  requirement  of  an  itinerary  is  omitted  by  Richard  when- 
ever he  is  in  more  than  usual  uncertainty;  or,  as  Mr.  Thomas  Wright 
says :  "  The  text  of  Richard's  Diaphragmata  is  in  some  parts  imperfect, 
from  the  damaged  state  of  the  manuscript."  In  reality  the  whole  Iter 
Britanniarum  of  Antoninus  is  engrafted  into  Richard's  Itinerary,  with 
the  exception  of  less  than  a  dozen  towns.    The  series  are  broken  occa- 


& 


BICARDUS  CORINENSIS. 


18 


laiD,  Le  aays; 
[ow  maoh  was 
lob  we  owe  to 
isy  to  say,  for 
ears,  however, 
lilar  to  that  of 
the  part  rela- 
i  by  Bertram 
li  they  are  not 
iced  where  he 
known  in  Ber- 
inencss  of  the 
:  between  that 
I,  and  another 
>r  of  Ravenna, 

between  two 
ind,  while  the 
1  purpose,  gave 
reputed  monk- 
ight  advantage 

in  reality  the 
quired  neither 
ok  had  before 
says  the  author 
clear"  to  him 

Bertram,  him- 
ith  any  map  of 
)roduced  to  Dr. 

boy's  capacity 

series  of  local 
,  with  the  dia- 

:  though  this 

Richard  when- 
rhomas  Wright 
parts  imperfect, 
'  the  whole  Iter 
I  Itinerary,  with 
re  broken  ooca  - 


Bionally,  and  sometimes  inverted ;  but  just  where  the  measurements  of 
new  roads  arc  in  request  the  manuscript  is  sure  to  fail.  But  indeed 
the  only  manuscript  ever  ascertained  to  have  been  seen  by  Danish  or 
English  antiquary  is  the  Bertram  correspondence  with  Dr.  Stukeley. 
Its  transcriber  was  not  even  put  to  the  trouble  of  rendering  his  iters  in 
fourteenth  century  characters. 

The  manuscripts  of  Antoninus  are  numerous ;  but  the  discrepancies 
in  the  distances  given  in  different  MSS.,  consequent  on  the  liability 
to  error  in  the  transcription  of  arbitrary  numerals,  greatly  detract  from 
its  value ;  so  that  a  genuine  itinerary  of  later  date,  with  trustworthy 
admeasurements;  or  oven  an  accurate  transcript  of  an  early  manu- 
script of  the  Jlinerarium  ascribed  to  Antoninus,  would  be  an  important 
addition  to  Roman  geography.  No  one,  however,  has  pretended  to  ac- 
credit Richard  with  this  virtue ;  but  in  lieu  of  it,  he  is  appealed  to  for 
novel  additions  to  the  elder  itinerary. 

"Two  imperfect  itineraries,"  says  Mr.  Thomas  Wright,  "giving  the 
names  and  distances  from  each  other  of  the  towns  and  stations  on  the 
principal  military  roads,  have  been  preserved."  The  first  of  these  is 
that  of  Antoninus  j  "  the  other  is  contained  in  the  work  of  Richard  of 
Cirencester,  and  is  supposed  to  have  been  copied  by  a  monk  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  from  an  older  itinerary  or  map.  They  differ  little 
from  each  other;  but  our  faith  in  Richard's  Itinerary  is  strengthened 
by  the  circumstance  that  nearly  all  the  roads  he  gives  which  arc  not 
in  Antoninus  have  been  ascertained  to  exist."  The  ground  of  faith, 
thus  indicated,  in  Richard,  is  vague  enough  when  analysed ;  for  the 
most  he  has  done  is  to  supply  a  string  of  names,  with,  or  without 
specific  distances,  between  certain  well-known  Roman  towns.  Enthu- 
siastic antiquaries  have  done  the  rest.  The  names  supplied  by  him 
have  been  appropriated  to  sites  of  Roman  camps,  stations,  or  traces  of 
earth-works  of  any  kind:  but  while  the  names  in  the  Not  ilia  have 
been  repeatedly  localised  by  their  discovery  on  inscribed  altars  and 
tablets,  or  on  vessels,  such  as  the  famous  bronze  Rudge  Cup :  no  single 
name  among  all  the  places  mentioned  for  the  first  time  in  Richard's 
Itinerary  has  been  verified  by  such  means.  Without  this,  the  appro- 
priation of  his  names  to  intermediate  points  between  well-ascertained 
Roman  stations  can  furnish  no  corroboration  of  his  text. 

Nevertheless,  the  foremost  authorities  among  Roman  antiquaries  of 
our  own  day  have  been  no  less  ready  than  General  Roy  was,  a  century 
before,  to  adopt  Richard  as  their  guide.    The  history,  indeed,  of  the 


L    ,• 


it 
'I  -  ■ 


14 


RICARDUS  OORINKNSIS. 


eager  reception, — without  one  dissentient  voice, — of  a  professed  manu- 
script of  the  fourteenth  century,  unheard  of  boforo ;  unseen,  so  far  as 
now  appears,  by  anybody;  and  ascribed  to  a  monk  whose  chronicle  and 
theological  writings  were  well  known ;  but  whose  name  had  never 
before  been  heard  of  in  connection  with  so  remarkable  a  work :  is 
highly  interesting  as  an  illustration  of  the  crude  ideas  as  to  literary  or 
historical  evidence  which  then  prevailed. 

As  to  Dr.  Stukeley,  his  delight  at  the  discovery  of  the  treasure  he 
had  been  privileged  to  introduce  to  the  learned  world  was  unbounded. 
Apologising  for  the  short-comings  of  his  earlier  labours  and  researches 
in  the  field  of  Britanno-Roman  antiquities,  he  thus  introduces  the 
new-found  luminary  by  whose  beams  all  doubt  and  obscurities  are  to 
bo  dissipated  :  "  the  more  readily,  therefore,  I  can  excuse  myself,  in 
regard  to  imperfections  in  that  work  [the  Itincrarium  Curiosuni],  as  I 
had  not  sight  of  our  author's  treatise,  Richard  of  Cirencester,  at  that 
time  absolutely  unknown.  Since,  then,  I  have  had  the  good  fortune 
to  save  this  most  invaluable  work  of  his,  I  could  not  refrain  from  con- 
tributing somewhat  toward  giving  an  account  of  it  and  of  its  author:" 
and  so — after  once  more  felicitating  himself  and  all  who  share  in  his 
literary  and  antiquarian  sympathies,  on  having  reason  to  congratulate 
themselves  "  that  the  present  work  of  Richard  is  happily  rescued  from 
oblivion,  and  most  likely  from  destruction  ;" — he  proceeds  to  narrate 
the  mode  by  which  his  knowledge  of  it  was  acquired. 

The  "  Dc  Sttii  Britannia;"  was  recognised  from  the  first  as  a  com- 
pilation ;  was  indeed  professedly  set  forth  by  its  author  as  such. 
"  Compiled  out  of  old  manuscripts  in  Westminster  Library,  now  lost," 
says  Dr.  Stukeley;  "the  old  monk  had  before  him  a  Roman  itinerary 
similar  to  that  of  Antoninus,"  says  Mr.  Thomas  Wright.  Of  ancient 
authors  ho,  of  course,  makes  use.  Diodorus,  Pliny,  Coesar,  Tacitus,  &c., 
are  quoted  :  and  with  such  minute  accordance  with  certain  texts — as 
we  shall  find, — as  to  furnish  very  amusing  anachronisms  for  a  monk  of 
the  fourteenth  century.  Solinus,  the  Latin  geographer,  is  followed 
verbatim  in  the  opening  sentence,  as  elsewhere,  without  reference  or 
acknowledgement.  That,  however,  an  old  monk  might  perhaps  be 
allowed  to  do  without  challenge.  But  when  he  betrays  a  like  famili- 
arity with  Camden ;  reproduces  hints  of  Horsley  j  and  even  suggests  a 
suspicion  whether  he  may  not  have  been  a  borrower  from  Stukeley 
himself:  any  faith  in  the  authenticity  of  an  ancient  manuscript  of  the 
De  Situ  Britannia:,  becomes  impossible. 


RICARDl'S  COUINENSIS. 


15 


a  professed  manu- 
unseen,  so  far  as 

lose  chronicle  and 
niUHo  bad  never 

kable  a  work :  is 

IS  as  to  literary  or 

f  the  treasure  he 
d  was  unbounded, 
irs  and  researches 
IS  introduces  the 
obscurities  are  to 
excuse  myself,  ia 
■  Curi'osutn'],  as  I 
rencester,  at  that 
the  good  fortune 
refrain  from  con- 
d  of  its  author : " 
who  share  in  his 
n  to  congratulate 
pily  rescued  from 
roceeds  to  narrate 

;he  first  as  a  corn- 
author  as  such, 
brary,  now  lost," 
Roman  itinerary 
ght.  Of  ancient 
Jsar,  Tacitus,  &e., 
Bertain  texts — as 
ms  for  a  monk  of 
aher,  is  followed 
lout  reference  or 
ight  perhaps  be 
lys  a  like  famili- 
1  even  suggests  a 
r  from  Stukeley 
lanuscript  of  the 


A  school  of  Roman  antiquaries,  however,  was  at  work  in  that 
eighteenth  century,  with  much  learning  and  zeal,  but  with  still  more 
credulity.  Sir  Walter  Scott  has  pictured  them  with  graphic  humour 
in  his  immortal  Antiquary,  with  his  "  Essay  upon  Castramctation,  with 
some  particular  remarks  upon  the  vestiges  of  ancient  fortifications  hue- 
ly  discovered  by  the  Author  at  the  Kaim  of  Kinpruncs  :"  the  supposed 
Castra  pruinis  of  Claudian.  Agricola  was  the  central  figure  of  all 
their  speculations ;  and  Tacitus  the  authority  on  whose  narrative  their 
discoveries  and  speculations  were  ever  throwing  new  light.  In  tbo 
midst  of  such  seductive  toils,  the  discovery  of  Richard's  manuscript, 
was  like  the  lost  books  of  Livy  to  the  historian  of  early  Rome.  The 
aoutcst  among  the  critical  investigators  of  the  age — though  engaged 
in  controversies  carried  on  with  a  bitterness  happily  unknown  to 
modern  literary  dissentions, — concurred  in  welcoming  the  Benedictine's 
Itinerary ;  and  so  ingeniously  adapted  its  vaguest  hints  to  their  own 
speculations  and  discoveries,  that  for  nearly  three  quarters  of  a  century, 
no  doubt,  was  raised  as  to  Bertram's  good  faith  in  the  reputed  discovery. 

Foremost  among  those  who  thus  gave  confirmation  to  Richard's 
treatise  on  ancient  British  geography,  by  identifying  its  iters  and 
stations  with  their  own  discoveries,  was  the  distinguished  author  of 
"  The  Military  Antiquities  of  the  Romans  in  North  Britain."  Major- 
General  Roy  had  served  as  an  oCGccr  of  engineers  under  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  in  his  Scottish  Campaign  of  1745.  He  was  employed  in 
the  surveys  and  military  works  suggested  by  the  events  of  that  critical 
period;  and  was  subsequently  commissioned  to  construct  a  map  of 
Scotland  from  actual  survey.  In  doing  so  be  made  careful  and  accu- 
rate drawings  of  Roman  camps,  roads,  and  other  earth-works  :  the 
whole  of  which,  with  his  descrittivc  narrative,  furnished  the  materials 
for  a  costly  folio  printed  at  the  expense  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries 
of  London,  in  1791,  under  the  comprehensive  title  of  "The  Military 
Antiquities  of  the  Romans  in  North  Britain ;  and  particularly  their 
ancient  system  of  castramctation  :  illustrated  from  vestiges  of  the  camps 
of  Agricola  existing  there.  Hence  his  march  from  South  into  North 
Britain  is  in  some  degree  traced ;  comprehending  also  a  treatise, 
wherein  the  ancient  geography  of  that  part  of  the  island  is  rectified, 
chiefly  from  the  lights  furnished  by  Richard  of  Cirencester." 

The  work  of  General  Roy  is,  and  ever  will  be,  an  invaluable  contri- 
bution to  the  history  of  the  period  of  Roman  occupation  of  Britain. 
It  furnishes  accurate  surveys  of  many  important  earth-works,  since 


ft... 


*«l--,.i'. 


\  I 


16 


SIOABDUS  CORINZNSIS. 


defaced  or  vbolly  destroyed ;  and  by  assooiating  the  name  of  Biobard 
with  tbe  accurate  and  trustwortby  record  of  his  own  surveys  and  men- 
surations, the  supposed  monkish  antiquary  was  presented  anew  to  tbe 
learned  world  with  credentials  scarcely  admitting  of  challenge  by  any 
ordinary  critic. 

Gibbon  discriminated  between  the  **  fanciful  conjectures"  of  Stukeley 
and  the  numismatic  materials  accumulated  by  him  in  his  "  Medallio 
History ;"  but  of  Richard  and  his  "  Be  Situ  Bntannicc,  ho  says :  "  he 
shows  a  genuine  knowledge  of  antiquity  very  extraordinary  for  a  monk 
of  the  fourteenth  century."     No  wonder,  therefore,  that  such  historians 
as  Lingard  and  Lappenberg ;  and  a  whole  century  of  Roman  antiqua- 
ries: have  appealed  undoubtingly  to  the  monkish  chronicler.   Whitaker 
in  his  "History  of  Manchester,"  and  Stuart  in  his  "  Caledonia  Romana," 
deal  with  him  as  an  undoubted  and  valuable  authority.    Ritson,  the 
keenest  of  literary  censors,  accepts  his  treatise  unchallenged.     Roy 
says  of  him,  "  it  is  evident  that  Richard  had  borrowed  very  consider- 
ably from  the  Alexandrian  geographer ;  yet  there  ia  one  part  of  his 
work,  namely,  that  including  the  Diaphragmata  [i.  e.,  the  Itinerary], 
which  is  quite  new  and  curious,  and  carries  along  with  it  the  appearance 
of  being  truly  genuine."     Nearly  every  English  writer  on  Roman 
history  or  antiquities  in  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century 
refers  to  it  in  like  fashion,  as  a  valuable  addition  to  the  materials  at  his 
command.     Stuart  makes  no   distinction  between   the  provinces  of 
Roman  Britain  recorded  in  the  "Notitia  Imperii"  and  that  of  Vespa- 
siana,  which  rests  on  tbe  sole  authority  of  Richard,  and  spread,  accord- 
ing to  tho  author  of  the  "  Caledonia  Romana,*'  "  from  the  barrier  of 
Antoninus  northward,  and  was  bounded,  as  is  supposed,  by  the  great 
valley  through  which  now  passes  the  Caledonian  Canal ; "  so  also  Mr. 
Charles  Roach  Smith,  one  of  the  most  zealous  among  the  Roman 
antiquaries  of  our  own  day,  uses  Richard's  Itinerary  as  a  safe  guide 
to  Roman  Britiua;  and  in  his  excellent  work  devoted  to  "the  Antiqui- 
ties of  Richborough,  Reculver,  and  Lyme,  in  Kent,"  unhesitatingly 
employs  him  to  correct,  or  supplement  the  geography  of  Ptolemy,  and 
the  Itinerary  of  Antoninus.    The  latter,  according  to  his  received  text, 
makes  DunrohriviSf  or  Rochester,  thirty-seven  miles  distant   from 
Londinium;  whilst  Richard  assigns  only  twenty-seven  miles.     But 
Mr.  C.  R.  Smith  accounts  for  it  by  assuming  for  the  former  an  indi- 
rect route ;  and  finds  in  ''  the  apparent  discrepancy  one  of  the  internal 
evidences  of  the  authenticity  of  this  writer." 


RIOARDUS  C0RINENSI8. 


17 


5  the  name  of  Riobard 
own  surveys  and  men- 
presented  anew  to  the 

ng  of  challenge  by  any 

DJeotures"ofStukeley 
him  in  his  "  Medallio 
itamicc,  he  says :  "  he 
raordinary  for  a  monk 
•e,  that  such  historians 
ry  of  Roman  antiqua- 
chronicler.   Whitaker 
"  Caledonia  Romana," 
ithority.     Ritson,  the 
unchallenged.     Roy 
rrowed  very  consider- 
re  is  one  part  of  his 
[«•  c,  the  Itinerary], 
yith  it  the  appearance 
ih  writer  on  Roman 
>  eighteenth  century 
a  the  materials  at  his 
in   the  provinces  of 
'  and  that  of  Vespa- 
,  and  spread,  accord- 
'  from  the  barrier  of 
posed,  by  the  great 
'anal  J »  so  also  Mr. 
among  the  Roman 
rary  as  a  safe  guide 
sd  to  "the  Antiqui- 
nt,"  unhesitatingly 
hy  of  Ptolemy,  and 
to  his  received  text, 
niles  distant  from 
seven  miles.     But 
the  former  an  indi- 
one  of  the  internal 


It  need  not  excite  our  wonder  that  what  is  thus  set  forth  by  the 
highest  antiquarian  authorities,  is  taught  without  hesitation  in  schools 
and  colleges.  The  maps  provided  for  them  are  supplemented  with 
names  derived  from  Richard's  Itinerary ;  and  the  authoritative  book  of 
reference  on  Ancient  Geography  produced  under  the  editorship  of  Dr. 
William  Smith,  presents  to  every  student  of  Roman  Britain  a  text  in 
which  Richard  of  Cirencester  amends  Ptolemy,  overrides  Tacitus,  and 
mingles  truth  and  fable  in  inextricable  confusion. 

The  difficulties  of  the  Romano-British  antiquary  have  been  perplex- 
ing enough ;  but  once  he  fully  awakes  to  the  worthlessness  of  this 
long  accepted  authority,  the  complexities  attendant  on  his  researches  will 
be  wonderfully  multiplied  :  when  he  is  compelled  to  be  on  his  guard  in 
every  reference  to  his  authorities,  for  more  than  a  century  subsequent 
to  the  year  1748,  lest  he  too  be  cheated  with  the  cbiifif  they  have  thus 
persistently  mingled  with  the  true  grains  of  knowledge. 

So  recently  as  1858,  Mr.  Henry  MaoLaucblan's  "  Survey  of  the 
Roman  Wall "  issued  from  the  press,  in  fulfilment  of  the  liberrl  pur- 
pose of  the  late  Duke  of  Northumberland.  There  Richard  of  Ciren- 
cester is  referred  to,  along  with  Nennius  and  Bedc,  without  a  doubt 
being  hinted  as  to  the  one  being  less  genuine  than  the  other ;  and  on 
the  elaborately  executed  maps  of  the  survey  the  names  of  Roman 
stations  are  taken  as  freely  from  Richard  as  from  any  other  authority. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  maps  of  the  Ordnance  Survey;  of  Mr.  C.  C, 
Babbington's  Map  of  Roman  Cambridgeshire ;  and  indeed  of  nearly 
every  map  of  Roman  Britain  published  during  the  present  century. 

So  far,  then,  it  is  obvious  that,  if  the  '•  Be  Situ  Britanniae,"  ascribed 
to  Richard  of  Cirencester  be  indeed  one  of  the  literary  forgeries  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  produced  in  that  age  of  perverse  ingenuity  which 
gave  birth  to  Hardyknute,  Ossian,  Rowley,  and  other  poetic  creations 
of  the  Bame  class :  its  fabricator  had  his  abundant  reward.  His  success 
is,  indeed,  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  literary  frauds :  unless 
we  go  back  to  a  time  little  less  modern  than  that  of  the  Westminster 
monk,  when  Ingulfs  reputed  History  of  his  Abbey  of  Croyland,  and 
its  Saxon  charters, — including  the  Golden  Charter  of  Ethelbald,  res- 
plendent with  illuminations  wholly  unknown  in  Saxon  times ; — were 
produced  in  A.D.  1415,  by  Prior  Richard,  to  the  discomfiture  of  his 
opponents,  when  prosecuting  a  suit  in  the  King's  Court,  against  those 
who  were  treating  his  ecclesiastical  sentence  of  excommunication  with 
open  contempts  Hickes,  in  his  JDisserlatio  Hpistolaris,  inclines  to 
2 


I 


18 


RIOARDUS  C0RINEN8IS. 


l! 


„ 


,    :■ 


oast  the  odium  of  their  forgery  on  Abbot  Ingulfus  himself,  who  died 
A.D.  1109.  Sir  Francis  Palgravo  thinks  both  History  and  Charters 
no  older  than  the  end  of  the  thirteenth,  or  first  half  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  But  Mr.  H.  T.  Riley,  in  his  "  History  and  Charters  of 
Ingulfus  considered,"  (^Archceol.  Journ.)  fixes  on  Prior  Richard  him- 
self as  contriver,  forger,  and  producer  of  the  fraudulent  documents : 
not  as  a  literary  hoax ;  but  as  deliberately  forged  evidence  in  the 
prosecution  of  a  suit  in  the  Courts  of  Henry  V.  at  Westminster. 

Such  legal  forgeries  appear  to  have  been  no  less  characteristic  of  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  than  the  literary  ones  of  Macpherson 
and  Ireland  were  of  their  later  ago.  Their  manufacture  had  become  a 
regular  trade;  and  not  only  spurious  Royal  Charters,  but  even  Papal 
Bulls,  could  be  had  to  order:  such  as  those  ascribed  to  the  Popes 
Honorius  and  Sergius  L,  produced  by  the  Prior  of  Barnwell,  as  popal 
delegate  for  Pope  Martin  Y.  in  1430,  and  still  inscribed  on  the  Great 
Register  of  the  University  of  Cambridge. 

The  History  and  Charters  of  Croyland  Abbey  were  prepared  by  its 
prior  with  a  graver  criminal  intent  than  the  MS.  of  his  reputed  West- 
minster namesake.  Both  achieved  the  amplest  success  that  their 
forgers  could  desire ;  but  the  discrediting  of  the  former  is  no  more 
than  a  curious  question  of  antiquarian  research,  whereas  the  latter  has 
not  wholly  ceased  even  now  to  sully  the  pure  stream  of  historical 
evidence.  Let  us  then  review  the  grounds  on  which  it  has  at  length 
been  displaced  from  its  long  accredited  position  as  an  indisputable 
authority  on  the  traces  of  the  Roman  occupation  of  Britain ;  and  fol- 
low out  the  researches  which  first  cast  suspicion  on  a  treatise  appealed 
to  without  hesitation  from  the  days  of  Gibbon  almost  to  our  own. 
The  Itinerary,  itself,  as  has  been  already  said,  was  a  simple  enough 
invention,  though  now  it  is  the  only  part  of  the  work  for  which 
any  defence  is  attempted.  The  Commentary  consists  of  tw(^°  books 
the  first  of  which  extends  to  eight  chapters.  Book  II.  breaks  off, 
in  a  fragmentary  condition,  in  its  second  chapter.  The  narrative  is, 
for  the  most  part,  prosaic  enough  to  have  proceeded  from  the  Bene- 
dictine scriptorium  ;  but  in  his  seventh  chapter  the  old  monk  is  repre- 
sented as  thrown  into  some  doubt  about  the  profitableness  of  antiqua- 
rian researches.  His  Abbot  had,  it  would  seem,  taken  him  to  task 
for  wasting  the  precious  hours  of  life,  all  too  brief  for  occupations 
that  ought  to  engross  the  thoughts  of  a  cloistered  Benedictine,  on 
what  were  only  fit  to  delude  the  world  with  unmeaning  trifles.    Richard 


'   *«iae 


> '-^i .LI I II jii.il  ■.>•;,({. wiminilt i    •-- 


BICARDUS  CORINENSIS. 


10 


bimself,  who  died 
5ry  and  Charters 
of  the  fourteenth 
and  Charters  of 
ior  Richard  him- 

ent  documents: 
evidence  in  the 
istminster. 
'racteristio  of  the 
a  of  Maopherson 
re  had  become  a 

but  even  Papal 
ed  to  the  Popes 
irnweli,  as  papal 
)ed  on  the  Great 

prepared  by  its 
I  reputed  West- 
icess  that  their 
mer  is  no  more 
>s  the  latter  has 
m  of  historical 
it  has  at  length 
an  indisputable 
•itain;  and  fol- 
•eatise  appealed 
St  to  our  own. 
simple  enough 
ork  for  which 

of  tw^  books 
fl-  breaks  off, 
3  narrative  is, 
rom  the  Bene- 
monk  is  repre- 
ss of  antiqua- 
>  him  to  task 
r  occupations 
nedictine,  on 
ies.    Bichard 


enters  on  the  dofonoo  of  hxa  labours  in  an  orthoJux  fushion  whidi 
seems  about  as  much  of  au  anachronism  as  his  antiquarian  zcul.  IIu 
yields,  however,  to  tho  good  Abbot's  remonstrauco,  lest  ho  should 
indeed  merit  the  title  of  an  unprofitable  servant,  and  hastens  to  brini; 
his  work  to  a  close.  "  Tho  following  Itinerary,"  ho  .says,  "  is  derived 
from  fragments  loft  by  [a  Roman  General.  Its  order  is  in  sunio  in- 
Btanccs  changed,  according  to  Ptolemy  and  others  :  it  is  hoped  for  the 
better ;"  and  so  he  proceeds  to  treat  of  the  ninety-two  cities  of  tho 
Britons. 

Ptolemy,  Antoninus,  and  other  available  authorities  have  been  freely 
used  and  improved  upon.  Ycspasiana,  for  example,  is  a  provinco 
affirmed  to  have  been  formed  in  the  time  of  Agricuhi  out  of  a  region  to 
the  north  of  the  Antonino  wall,  conquered  in  tho  reign  of  Domitian  ; 
but  of  which  Agricola's  own  soiMn-law  and  biographer  says  nothing. 
Among  the  Roman  Stations  in  Richard's  fourteenth  Iter,  "  Ad  Isca 
per  glcbon  lindum  usque,"  is  Alauna,  mentioned  by  Ptolemy  as  a 
town  of  the  Damnii,  in  Warwickshire,  with  its  modern  name  of  Alchos- 
ter.  But  there  is  another  Aluhester,  or  Alccster,  in  Oxfordshire,  also 
celebrated  as  the  scene  of  Roman  discoveries.  Tho  former  of  those  is 
stated  in  Baxter's  Glossary  to  have  been  called  "  EUeneester,"  by 
Mathew  Paris;  and  so  Richard — it  might  almost  seem  blundering  over 
Baxter's  Glossarium  Anliqiiitatum  Britannicarum  of  1733, — makes 
out  of  tho  wrong  Alchester  his  ^iia  Castra ;  which  properly  belonged 
to  a  wholly  different  Iter.  Again,  the  establishment  of  another  pro- 
vince, that  of  Valentia,  erected  by  Theodosius,  about  A.D.  3G9,  is 
ascribed  to  Constantino,  who  died  thirty-two  years  before.  In  the 
Ninth  Iter,  "  Ad  montem  Grampium,"  all  Scottish  antiquaries  were 
charmed  with  the  promised  identification  of  the  famous  Mens  Grampius 
of  Galgacua.  But  tho  location  given  to  it  would  in  no  way  harmonize 
with  (heir  theories;  and,  if  modern  critics  are  to  be  believed,  monk 
Richard  anticipated  a  blunder  of  the  printing  press  when  he  adopted 
the  popular  name :  for  Tacitus,  according  to  tho  most  trustworthy 
MSS.,  wrote  Grouptus,  not  Grampius. 

The  first  doubts  cast  on  the  authenticity  of  the  "  De  Situ  Britannisc" 
of  Richard  of  Cirencester,  were  set  forth  in  a  document  issued  by  the 
English  Historical  Society  in  1838,  as  reasons  which  guided  the  Coun- 
cil in  omitting  it  from  their  republication  of  ancient  materials  of  English 
History.  Bat  the  judgment  was  not  a  unanimous  one;  and  research 
was  encouraged,  ia  the  hope  that  the  discovery  of  an  ancient  manu- 


.,-,  ii/Jl 


't 


niOAnOUB  CORINKNBIS. 

script  or  Iho  work  might  still  sorre  to  remove  all  incrcdulitj.  But 
moiinwhile  Dr.  Carl  Wex,  a  distioguishcd  German  Boholar  engaged 
uo  a  revised  edition  of  the  Agrioola  of  Tacitus,  on  turning  to  Diehard 
for  the  elucidation  of  his  text,  was  surprised  by  the  discovery  that  the 
reputed  occupant  of  a  Benedictine  cell  in  the  monastery  of  St.  Peter's* 
Westminster,  in  1350,  bad  systematically  adopted  readings  traceable  to 
an  edition  of  Tacitus  printed  nt  Venico  more  than  a  hundred  years 
after  his  tiuio,  and  supplemented  by  the  conjectural  emendations  of 
later  editors.  A  careless  corapositcr  of  A.D.  1497  for  example,  has  in 
sotting  up  the  passage  (cap.  10),  "  quod  nisi  Paulinus  cognito  provincial) 
motu  subvenisset,"  &o.,  repeat  d  two  letters  thus,  co  cognito.  The 
conjectural  emendation  by  an  ^.iitor  of  the  following  century  of  eo 
cognito  was  adopted  os  the  reading  of  subsequent  editions  ;  and  OD 
turning  to  Richard,  he  is  found  to  have  anticipated  the  double  blunder 
before  compositors  or  typographical  errors  had  a  being  I  Similar  ex- 
amples abound.  Bertram's  iugenious  monk  of  the  fourteenth  century 
has  an  intuitive  perception  of  all  conceivable  raisreadings,  and  antici- 
pates everywhere  the  corrupt  text  of  the  seventeenth  century.  Cumu- 
lative evidence  of  this  kind,  by  which  the  minutest  typographical 
blunders,  and  their  conjectural  emendations  by  later  editors,  are  all 
found  in  a  professed  MS.  of  the  fourteenth  century,  ought  to  sulHco  as 
a  settlement  of  the  question.  That  a  Westminster  monk  of  1<350 
should  find  Tacitus  and  all  other  classical  works  at  his  elbow,  might  of 
itself  surprise  us ;  but  that  he  should  quote  the  blunders  of  modern 
printers  can  onlr  be  reconciled  with  any  probability  by  assuming  the 
all- comprehensive  misreading  of  1350  for  1750. 

In  1846  Dr.  Carl  Wex  embodied  the  prolegomena  of  his  edition  of  the 
Agricola  of  Tacitus — in  so  far  as  these  refer  to  The  Tractate  on  Britain, 
— in  an  article  published  in  the  Rheinischea  Museum,  at  Frankfort-on- 
thc-Maioe,  in  which  he  is  by  no  means  complimentary  to  "  Stukoleio 
et  anglicis  nntiquariis,"  in  reference  to  their  championship  of  this 
masquerading  monk  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Mr.  Arthur  Ilusaey,  in  1853,  drew  attention,  in  the  Gentleman's 
Magazine,  to  the  spurious  character  of  the  work,  and  indicated  Camden 
as  the  source  of  much  of  its  materials.  More  recently,  Mr.  B.  B. 
Woodward,  the  learned  curator  of  the  Royal  Library  at  Windsor  Castle, 
has  followed  out  an  independent  series  of  researches  no  less  curious  and 
conclusive.  If  it  surpasses  every  probability  that  a  monk  of  the  four- 
teenth century  should  be  found  anticipating  the  cumulative  blunders, 


If 


'■-^■■■nfciMiMdiME^ifcyitfatolM^ 


\ 


RICARDUS  C0RINEN8TB. 


21 


dulitj.    But 
liar  engaged 
g  to  Richard 
Tcry  that  the 
■  St.  Peter's. 
I  traceable  to 
ndred  years 
indations  of 
mple,  has  in 
to  provincioD 
jnito.     The 
ntury  of  eo 
na ;  and  od 
ble  blunder 

Similar  ex- 
nth  century 

and  antici- 
ry.  Cumu- 
pographical 
tors,  are  all 
to  sufflco  as 
ik  of  1350 
w,  might  of 

of  modern 
suming  the 

ition  of  the 
on  Britain, 
ankfort-on- 
'<  Stukoleio 
lip  of  this 

'entletnan'a 
)d  Camden 
yir.  B.  B, 
Isor  Castle, 
urious  and 
r  the  four- 
blunders, 


and  the  latest  mispriDts  of  ill-oditod  classics  :  tho  mnrvcl  is  littlo  Ic^s 
when  ho  is  shown  to  have  been  beforehand  in  like  uiiiiinor  wilh  the 
conjectures  and  bold  hypotheses  of  Canidon.  Wo  leiirn  from  tho 
ybtitia  Imperii  tho  names  of  the  five  provinces  of  Britiiiti,  but  for 
the  relativo  position  or  boundaries  of,  at  least,  three  out  of  tlui  fuo,  wo 
are  loft  wholly  to  conjocturo.  Roman  antiquaries  have  aeeordliigly 
sbifted  their  localitios  according  to  tho  theories  they  advoentcd  ;  iiud 
Cuwden,  among  tho  rest,  has  his  hypothesis  :  anticipated  as  a  domnn- 
strable  geographical  distribution  of  tho  iloman  divi>ioiis  of  the  island, 
in  Richard's  Tractate.  To  thoso  ho  does,  indued,  aJd  V,.,i>,m,inn, 
apparently  as  his  own  entirely  novel  contribution  to  iloman  geograpliy ; 
but  even  this  Mr.  Woodward  conceives  to  be  traccablo  to  a  hint  of  tlio 
great  Elizabethan  antifiuary. 

Camden  assumes  a  liver  Vrvs  on  which  to  place  KLnnicum,  or  York, 
but  Richard  already  had  it.  Out  of  Ptolemy's  TrlsunUni  ho  constvucts, 
by  means  of  a  false  etymology  from  Iluntu,  a  word  Anionn,  and  applies 
it  to  the  River  Itchcn  j  but  the  old  monk  of  Westminster  was  before 
him  in  this  ingenious  blundering.  Camden  makes  of  the  "  -Madua  " 
of  tho  Peutingerian  Table  a  river,  and  identifies  it  with  tho  Medwuy ; 
the  "Lemana"  of  elder  authorities  becomes  with  him  the  "  Lemanus 
fluviusj"  Richard  adopts  both,  and  adds,  to  complete  tho  rivers  of 
Cantium,  the  "  Sturius  et  Dubris :"  he  or  his  alter  cjo,  having  mistaken 
the  name  of  tho  town  of  Dover  for  that  of  a  river. 

These  are  more  illustrations  of  the  blundering  servility  with  which 
Camden's  ingenious  hypotheses  are  adopted  ;  and  his  errors  accepted, 
even  to  such  orthographic  variations  as  "  Segontium  "  for  "  Seu;on- 
cium."  The  examples  cited  by  Mr.  Woodward  of  Richard's  anticipa- 
tions of  such  ponjectures  and  assumptions  arc  numerous  and  conclusive 
beyond  all  dispute.  One  of  the  boldest  of  his  conversions  of  a  niero 
analogy  into  a  fact  will  best  illustrate  this  process  of  manufacture  of 
ancient  geography.  Camden  in  support  of  his  etymology  of  the  name 
of  Cornwall,  says  there  were  promontories  in  Crete  and  in  the  Tauric 
Chersonese,  called  /i>«/y  iiiraiTta,  because  of  their  resemblance  to  the 
horn  of  a  ram;  and  so  Richard  supplies  us  with  authority  for  naming 
the  British  "  Ram's  Head  "  of  Camden  Kino'j  idrutzov. 

There  is  tome  satisfaction  in  referring  to  the  labours  of  P]nglish 
scholars  in  the  exposure  of  a  fraud  on  which  English  scholarship  has 
expended  such  misplaced  zeal.  Yet  even  now,  there  are  antiquaries 
of  good  repute  who  have  not  disavowed  their  faith  in  the  antiquarian 


22 


niOARDVS  COniNENHtS. 


<! 


Uonodiotino  of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  Cop('nlinj»en  mnnuncript 
hnfi  utterly  vaniHhoJ ;  or  rnthor,  appears  to  hnvo  been  niythionl  from 
the  (IrNt;  nn<l  no  frnnmont,  or  reforcneo  to  ony  other  copy,  hns  over  been 
Boon  or  lienril  of.  Dr.  Stukcloy's  first  iilco  was  to  soouro  the  orij;inal 
for  tho  Hritish  Mu.Houm  ;  but  IJertram  hail  a  pI«u.siblo  story  to  account 
for  his  ilccliiiiiip;  oithcr  to  lend  or  sell  it,  when  it  pas.scd,  os  ho  ndlrinod, 
into  his  own  luinds.  It  was,  accorilin}»  to  him,  part  of  a  hir^o  MS. 
stolon  out  of  an  Knglish  library,  by  one  wlio  had  boon  wild  in  his 
youtli ;  nnd  whoso  mode  of  showing  his  later  penitonco  wa.i  that  "  ho 
gavo  it  to  Hcrtram  nt  Coponhapon,  nnd  enjoined  him  to  kocp  it  secret." 
On  this  tlio  conjecture  has  boon  founded  that  tho  IJertrom  MS.  may 
have  boon  purloined  from  tho  Cottonian  Library  at  tho  firo  of  1782, 
carried  to  Cuponhafron,  nnd  .so  made  tho  basis  of  tho  published  tractate. 
It  is  at  any  rate  worth  notice,  among  tho  other  consistencies  of  this 
Btory,  that  the  mode  adopted  by  Ikrtram  for  koopinj»  his  confidant's 
secret  wos  to  communicate  it  forthwith  to  tho  mo.st  likely  of  all  Enj^lish- 
men  to  publish  it  to  the  world.  Had  this  boon  followed  up  by  tho 
restoration,  or  even  tho  sale,  of  tho  stolen  manuscript,  it  would  havo 
satisfied  all  minds;  but,  as  tho  excuse  accepted  by  Dr.  Stukcloy  nnd 
his  contemporaries  for  provcntirg  anyone  obtaining  a  sight  of  tho 
original,  it  reads  now  as  tho  shallow  invention  of  an  impostor. 

IJut  again  it  is  suggested  by  those  who  still  cling  to  iho  possible 
genuineness  of  tho  Itinerary,  that  Bertram  may  havo  so  altered,  patched, 
nnd  tampered  with^  tho  copy  ho  sent  to  Dr.  Stukolcy,  to  adapt  it  to  tho 
tastes  of  his  correspondent,  that  ho  was  tempted  to  destroy  tho  original. 
Nor  is  there  wanting  a  hint  on  which  to  found  such  an  hypothesis. 
]Mr.  Ucrtram's  monk  was  introduced  to  Dr.  Stukolcy  as  llichnrd  of 
Westminster.  Tho  Doctor  thereupon  betook  himself  to  tho  Abbey 
Library,  and  was  able  to  toll  his  Copenhagen  correspondent  that  ho 
had  found  traces  enough  of  tho  old  chronicler,  Richard  of  Ciren- 
cester, a  iiiuiik  of  Westminster ;  whereupon  Bertram's  antique  MS. 
at  once  adopts  the  change;  and  its  title  expands  into  "  Ricardi  Cori- 
nensjis  Monachi  Wcstmonastcrionsis  Do  Situ  Britannia)."  The  title  is 
of  a  modern  form ;  for  tho  old  monk  who  wrote  tho  "  Speculum 
Historialo "  styles  himself  "  Ricardus  do  Cironcestria."  But  tho 
Copenhagen  MS.  had  a  wonderful  adaptability;  nnd  when  printed 
there,  at  Dr.  Stukeloy's  urgent  advice,  in  1757,  it  embodied  sundry 
variations  from  the  text  he  had  edited  from  Bertram's  own  transcript, 
including  differences  in  tho  distances  of  tho  Itinerary,  and  a  map  so 


fi'ii':';  iiS" 


R10AUDU8  COniNPNSIS. 


2n 


''inscn  tnnnuKcrfpl; 
oon  niythioni  from 
copy,  has  over  hoon 
loouro  tho  ori^rinnl 
'lo  storj  to  nccount 
scJ,  nsJ,onfIlr,nod, 
t  of  n  lnrj,'o  Mg. 

Ifcon  wild  in  i,ig 
CO  wos  that  «  he 
'o  koep  it  secret." 
"•tram  MS.  may 
ho  firo  of  17JJ2 
uljlished  tractate, 
iitencies  of  this 
S  Ill's  confidant's 
'yofallEnj^Iish. 
'wcd  up  by  tho 
)  it  would  havo 
>r.  Stukeloy  and 

^  "'K'lt  of  the 
postor. 

to  tho  pos.sibIo 
Itcrcd,  patched, 
>  ndapt  it  to  tho 
oy  the  ori^'inaj. 
nn  hypothesis, 
as  Uichard  of 
to  tho  Abbey 
nJont  that  ho 
inrd  of  Ciren- 
I  antique  MS. 
Kicardi  Cori- 
The  title  is 
"  Speculum 
"      But  tho 
ivhon  printed 
odied  sundry 
I'n  transcript, 
id  a  map  so 


unlike  that  engraved  by  Stukdey,    '^at  the  latu .  seems  a  more  crude 
Bkotoh  preparatory  to  the  other. 

But  Huch  discrcpancioH,  if  noticed,  excited  no  au«pioion.  So  p:rwt\y 
was  tho  work  in  demand,  that,  some  ci^U  years  later  another^  Eng- 
lish edition  was  projected,  and  its  proposed  editor  wrote  to  Copen- 
hagen in  order  to  procure  an  exact  fac-Mmilo  of  tho  original  map. 
But  Bertram  hud  died  on  tho  Hth  of  .January,  ITI).'),  and  nobody  Iroin 
that  day  to  this  ha.s  been  hoard  of  who  ever  had  a  ^;limpso  of  cither 
map  or  manuscript.  Richard's  other,  and  undoubtedly  genuine  works 
are  traced  without  diiTiculty  ;  but  tho  amplest  catalogues  of  ancient 
manuscripts  contain  no  notice  of  that  to  which  ho  owes  all  his  modern 

fame.  . 

But  lot  us  hear  what  one  of  tho  most  diligent  of  modern  Uoman 
investigators  has   to  say  on  his  behalf.     "  llicluud  of  (.'irencoster's 
J)c  Situ  Bntanniw.  has  been  (luestioned,"  says  Mr.  Charles  lloach 
Smith,  in  his  "  lUchborough  ;"  "  and  Bertram,  who  published  it,  has 
been  accused  of  having  collected  his  materials  from  tho  best  ancient 
and  modern  authorities,  and  arranged  tho  entire  work.     Hatcher,  in 
the  preface  to  his  translation,  has  ably  combated  tho  objections  brought 
against  the  originality  of  the  Itinerary  ;  and  in  one  of  his  letters  to  me, 
dated   Salisbury,  November  2n,  1840,  ho   writes:    '  Cuptam  Jolliflo 
kindly  called  my  attention  to  the  Gentleman  s  Mayazinc,  for  tho  obser* 
vations  on  Richard  of  Cirencester.    After  all,  they  are  only  fighting 
with  tho  wind.     In  my  edition  I  gave  up,  long  ago,  his  description  ot 
Britain,  and  his  chronology,  except  the  account  of  the  rank  held  by  the 
British  towns,  which  was  knowu  only  to  our  native  antiquaries ;  and 
this  in  more  instances  than  one.     As  for  poor  Bertram,  the  sneers  at 
him  arc  as  unmerited  as   they   are   ridiculous.'  "     Tho  old  editor  ot 
Richard  adds,  "  I  intended  once,  to  havo  set  this  question  at  rest;  but 
that  time  is  gone  by;"  and  so  tho  worthy  antiquary  died  in  tho  faith 
of  Bertram's  honesty,  and  Richard's  genuineness. 

But  there  is  a  confirmation,  of  a  kind  peculiarly  suitable  to  the 
character  of  Bertram's  "  Richard,"  which  has  escaped  tho  notice  ot 
his  enthusiastic  defenders.  The  very  reverend  Jeremiah  MiUcs,  D.U. 
Dean  of  Exoter,  and  President  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  of  London, 
rendered  the  same  pious  services  to  "  Thomas  Rowlic,  parish  prieste 
of  St.  John's,  in  tho  city  of  Bristol,  A.D.  UG3,"  which  Dr.  btukeley 
did  to  "  Richard  of  Cirencester,"  the  Benedictine  monk  of  Westmin- 
ster    Our  incredulous  age  has  come,  for  tho  most  part,  to  believe  thut 


■•Tff-r 


24 


niOARDUS  OOBINENSId. 


Thomas  Ghatterton,  the  Bristol  Blueooat  boy,  was  the  sole  author  of 
the  Rowley  poems.  But  Dr.  Milles  published  a  very  learned  quarto  to 
prove  the  genuineness  of  the  apocryphal  priest,  and  the  antiquity  of 
the  marveiious  charity-boy's  "  iElla,"  "  Hastings,"  "  The  Bristowe 
Tragedy,"  and  the  rest.  The  Dean  did  not  meddle  with  the  reputed 
prose  works  of  his  medieval  priest.  They  were  then  in  preparation 
for  the  press  by  a  no  less  painstaking  Bristol  antiquary :  Mr.  William 
Barrett,  Surgeon  and  F.  S.  A.  But  among  the  latter  is  a  passage, 
which,  had  any  unbeliever  then  ventured  a  doubt  as  to  the  genuine- 
ness of  Richard's  Itinerary,  would  have  been  hailed  by  his  champions 
as  an  irrefragable  confutation.  It  curiously  illustrates  the  revolution 
of  opinion  in  the  interval,  that  the  same  evidence  would  now  suflSce, 
were  'iny  such  needed,  to  confute  all  the  voluminous  arguments  of 
Dean  Milles  in  support  of  the  imaginary  poet-priest  of  the  fifteenth 
century. 

The  good  priest  Rowley  is  in  search  of  manuscripts  and  antiquarian 
treasures  of  all  sorts,  for  his  nlv ..  J  aud  patron,  Maister  William  Canynge, 
Mayor  of  Bristol.  But  the  times  are  full  of  trouble,  for  they  are  those 
of  the  wars  of  the  Roses ;  and  Rowley,  writing  from  Cirencester, 
betrays  his  political  sympathies.  But,  after  a  brief  comment  on  my 
Lord  of  Warwick's  unprincipled  ambition,  he  thus  passes  to  a  more 
congenial  theme,  suited  to  the  place  from  which  he  writes.  "  I  have 
founde  the  papers  of  Fryar  Rycharde  :  he  saieth  nothynge  of  Bristolle, 
albeit  he  haveth  a  long  storie  of  Seyncte  Yyncente  and  the  Queede. 
His  ceile  is  most  lovelie  depycted  on  the  whyte  walles  wythe  black 
cole,  displaieynge  the  Iters  of  the  Woste."  Such  was  the  spirit  of  that 
eighteenth  century  ;  ingenious,  inventive,  but  wholly  unscrupulous  aa 
to  the  uses  to  which  its  ingenuity  was  applied. 

Yet  Bertram  aqd  Chatterton,  though  foremost  among  the  "  literary 
forgers "  of  that  eighteen  century,  must  not  be  classed  together,  as 
though  they  stood  on  common  ground.  Chatterton  did  indeed  deceive 
Barrett,  Milles,  and  many  another  credulous  dupe ;  but  now  that  his 
mystifications  have  all  vanished,  his  priest  Rowley  remains  as  an 
ingenious,  and  harmless  fiction ;  and  his  Ballads,  Epics,  and  Dramatic 
Interludes  take  a  permanent  rank  in  the  poetic  literature  of  his  age. 
But  the  De  Situ  Britanniae,  if  a  forgery  of  that  eighteenth  century,  is 
not  merely  worthless :  it  is  one  of  the  most  mischievous  of  literary 
impostures,  reflecting  disgrace  on  its  mendacious  perpetrator;  and 
tainting  with  misconception  and  falsehood  the  investigations  of  honest 


mftnja.ixJweM*o^Jl 


Iio  sole  author  of 
learned  quarto  to 
tlie  antiquity  of 
;'The  Bristowe 
ith  the  reputed 
"  '0  preparation 
•y:  Mr.  William 
■er  ia  a  passage, 
to  the  genuine- 
y  his  champions 
s  the  revolution 
uld  now  suffice, 
3  arguments  of 
of  the  fifteenth 

nd  antiquarian 
illiam  Canynge, 
r  they  are  those 
1   Cirencester, 
inmeut  on  my 
»8es  to  a  more 
'es.     "I  have 
jeofBristolle, 
'  the  Queede. 
I  wythe  black 
'  spirit  of  that 
scrupulous  aa 

the  "  literary 
together,  as 
deed  deceive 
low  that  his 
mains  as  an 
id  Dramatic 
of  his  age. 
I  century,  is 
of  literary 
rator;   and 
i  of  honest 


BICABDtJS  COaiNENSIS. 


25 


and  laborious  workers  in  an  important  department  of  historical  re- 
search. 

It  becomes  a  matter  of  interest  then,  to  recover  any  information  that 
can  now  bo  obtained  relative  to  this  Charles  Julius  Bertram,  Professor 
of  the  English  Language  at  the  Royal  Naval  School  of  Copenhagen  ; 
and  to  this  I  am  able  to  make  a  slight  contribution.  In  the  first  edition 
of  the  «'  Prehistoric  Annals  of  Scotland,"  published  in  1851, 1  referred 
to  "  the  Monk  of  Westminster,  whom  antiquaries  may  bo  pardoned 
suspecting  to  have  assumed  the  cowl  for  the  purpose  of  disguise,  being 
in  truth  a  monk  not  of  the  fourteenth  but  of  the  eighteenth  century." 
This  led  to  a  correspondence  with  an  Anglo-Roman  antiquary  who 
wad  still  a  devout  believer  in  Richard  and  his  Itinerary :  in  conse- 
quence of  which  I  wrote  to  my  late  friend.  Professor  P.  A.  Munch,  of 
Christiania,  the  Norwegian  historian,  begging  him  to  ascertain  for  mo 
anything  that  he  could  from  literary  friends  at  Copenhagen  relative 
to  Bertram,  or  his  manuscript.  In  his  reply  Professor  Munch  says  : 
"  I  have  got  an  answer  from  Mr.  Werlauff  about  Richardus  Corinensis, 
containing  everything  that  he  knows  of  information  as  to  this  matter. 
The  MS.  is  nowhere  to  be  found,  that  is  sure  enough.  Yet  Mr. 
Werlauff  is  not  at  all  inclined  to  think  it  a  forgery :  an  opinion  which 
indeed  surprises  me  very  much.  That  Stukcley — says  Mr.  Werlauff, — 
knew  the  Bertram  MS.  already  ten  years  before  the  first  edition  was 
made,  appearb  from  a  letter,  written  by  Dr.  Stukeley  to  the  celebrated 
Hans  Gramm  at  Copenhagen,  (dated  Sept.  1,  1747,)  of  which  letter 
an  abridgement  is  given  in  the  preface.  In  the  original,  however,  the 
passage  runs  much  more  complete,  as  follows  :  "  Bertramo  tuo  me 
oommendatum  facias  oro,  quern  felicem  tuo  patrociuio  existimo.  Feli- 
oem  me  quoque  reddidit,  tuo  in  lespcctu,  fragmentum  suum  M.SS- 
Ricardi  mon.  Weatmonasteriensis.  Ilarum  est  cimelium  in  bibliothecis 
nostris  ignotum.  Ego  non  indignum  censeo  ut  prelo  committatur,  opus 
nostris  antiquariis  acceptissimum."  "  This  "  adds  Professor  Munch, 
"  certainly  does  not  savoir  of  anything  like  forgery  or  falsehood  on  the 
part  of  Stukeley :"  an  idea  which  no  one  familiar  with  tho  character 
of  that  amiable  enthusiast  would  think  of  entertaining. 

Mr.  Werlauff  inferred,  from  a  reference  in  one  of  Bertram's  papers, 
that  he  had  come  to  Denmark  some  time  before  his  father  :  having, 
according  to  his  interpretation  of  that  notice,  arrived  in  Copenhagen 
ten  years  prior  to  1748, "  indirectly  asked  to  come  by  King  Christian." 
But,  according  to  Worm's  Lexicon  of  Danish  Authors,  Bertram  was 


V    I 


BIOABDVS  C0RINENSI3. 

born  in  1723,  and  was  therefore  barely  fifteen  at  the  date  of  this  sup- 
posed royal  invitation.  We  may  therefore  still  adhere  to  the  more  pro- 
bable account  that  he  accompanied  his  father,  in  the  suite  of  the 
Princess  Louisa,  in  1743. 

"  As  for  Bertram,"  continues  Professor  Munch,  "  ho  seems  tc  have 
been  rathc-r  a  worthy  man.  His  father,  a  silk-dyer,  is  said  to  have 
immigrated  into  Denmark  with  the  people  and  menials  accompanying 
the  English  Princess  Louisa.  In  1744,  he  established  himself  at 
Copenhagen  as  a  hosier.  His  son,  the  Bertram  in  question,  was  a 
student,  a  kind  of  proteg6  of  King  Christian  VI.  From  papers  in  the 
Record  OflSce  of  the  Academical  Council  at  Copenhagen,  it  appears 
that  he  gave  in  to  the  said  Council  a  petition,  dated  5th  July,  1747, 
requesting  that  ho  might  be  inscribed  as  a  student,  although  belonging 
to  the  Anglican  Church.  Ho  meant  to  excolcre  historiam,  antiquitates, 
philoso})Jiiam,  el  mathesin.  On  the  23rd  March,  1748,  he  petitioned 
the  King  that  he  might  bo  appointed  to  lecture  puhlice  on  the  English 
Language.  There  exists  still  in  the  Library  at  Copenhagen  a  frag- 
ment of  Bertram's  treatise  on  Cnut  the  Great ; "  and  it  may  be  added 
that  the  literary  characteristics  of  this  manuscript  are  said  to  furnish 
very  poor  evidence  of  the  scholarship  of  their  transcriber.  It  only 
remains  to  state  that  Bertram  died  January  8tb,  17G5,  in  his  forty- 
second  year ;  and  Dr.  Stukeley  survived  him  less  than  two  months. 

A  certain  authority  and  weight  has  heretofore  been  given  to  "  Pro- 
fessor "  Bertram,  which  it  now  appears  was  wholly  without  foundation. 
At  the  date  of  his  letter  to  Dr.  Stukeley  he  was  not  even  an  under- 
graduate. He  was  only  petitioning  for  admission  as  a  student  at  the 
University  of  Copenhagen  j  and  his  professed  transcripts  of  the  Richard 
MS.  were  the  product  of  an  undergraduate's  pen.  As  to  his  professor- 
ship, with  its  high  sounding  title :  it  does  not  appear  to  have  amounted 
to  much  more  than  the  tutorial  work  to  which  many  a  Scottish  under- 
graduate resorts  under  similar  circumstances,  with  a  view  to  eke  out  his 
slender  finances,  and  help  him  on  to  his  degree. 

Nevertheless  there  is  a  certain  appearance  of  scholarship,  and  some 
facility  in  Latin  composition,  involved  in  the  concocting  of  the  Richard 
MS.  which  might  be  supposed  to  surpass  the  powers  of  an  under- 
graduate. He  quotes  some  fifteen  or  sixteen  ancient  authors,  includ- 
ing Diodorus  Siculus,  Livy,  Strabo,  Cassar,  Pomponius  Mela,  Virgil, 
Pliny,  Lucan,  Tacitus,  &c.  Most  of  his  references  may  indeed  bo 
found,  as  already  stated,  in  Camden;  and  the  remainder  could  readily 


RIOARDtrS  C0BINEN8IS. 


27 


late  of  this  gup- 
0  the  more  pro- 
e  suite  of  the 

3  seems  tc  have 
s  said  to  have 

accompanying 
led  himself  at 
uestion,  was  a 
a  papers  in  the 
;en,  it  appears 
-h  July,  1747, 
'Ugh  belonging 
n,  antt'quitates, 
r  he  petitioned 
in  the  English 
ihagen  a  frag- 
may  be  added 
lid  to  furnish 
ber.    It  only 

in  his  forty- 
0  months. 
?en  to  "  Pro- 
It  foundation, 
en  an  under- 
udent  at  the 
P  the  Richard 
his  professor- 
ire  amounted 
ottish  under- 
0  eke  out  his 

ip,  and  some 
the  Bichard 
•f  an  under- 
hors,  includ- 
Hela,  Virgil, 
'  indeed  be 
ould  readily 


be  oullod  from  more  familiar  pages,  including  those  of  Stukclcy  himself. 
Yet  it  might  be  assumed,  without  inquiry,  that  some  scholarship,  and 
a  degree  of  practise  in  Latin  composition,  were  necessary,  in  order  to 
put  together  such  a  piece  of  work  for  the  eyes  of  European  scholars. 
It  is  noteworthy,  therefore,  that  Bertram  in  his  petition  for  admission  to 
the  University,  professed  to  study  History,  Antiquities,  riiilosophy  and 
Mathematics ;  but  of  the  Classical  Languages  nothing  is  said.    Arc  wo 
to  infer  from  this  that  ho  was  already  so  perfect  in  them  as  to  regard 
their  further  study  superfluous;  or  must  we  assume,  in  accordance  with 
the  ordinary  practise  of  undergraduates,  that  ho  exercised  his  options 
in  selecting  the  departments  best  suited  to  his  tastes  and  acquirenients? 
In  reality  the  latinity  of  Richard,  which  so  charmed  Dr.  Stukclcy 
and  his  contemporaries,  is  very  much  in  the  style  of  undergraduate,  or 
school-boy  Latin  composition;  and  can  only  have  passed  muster  with 
them  on  the  assumption  that  it  was  fr.ir  monkish  Latin,  which  must 
not  bo  tried  by  too  high  a  standard.     Mr.  Woodward  has  pointed  out 
the  anachronism  of  a  monk  of  the  fourteenth  century,  using  the  word 
fiatio,  neither  in  its  ancient  sense,  as  the  spot  on  which  a  guard  was 
placed ;   nor  in  its  medieval  sense  as  a  religious  station,  or  halting- 
place  for  ecclesiastical  processions :  hut  in  its  wholly  modern  and  anti- 
quarian  acceptance.     Similar  examples  abound.     But,  in  truth,  most 
of  the  original  paragraphs,  by  means  of  which  the  classical  quotations 
are  pieced  together,  read  very  much  like  a  school-boy's  exercise,  first 
written  in  English,  and  then  translated,  word  by  word,  with  the  help 

of  his  dictionary. 

This  suggests   an   inquiry,  which  has  hitherto  been   overlooked, 
though  by^no  means  without  its  important  bearing  on  the  general 
question.     What  part  was  "  the  famous  m.  Gramm,  Privy  Councillor 
and  Chief  Librarian  to  his  Danish  Majesty,"  playing  in  the  ingenious 
mystification,  when  he  wrote  the  "  prolix  and  elaborate  Latin  epistle 
which  Bertram  enclosed  to  Dr.  Stukclcy  in  his  own  first  reply?    Tho 
correspondence  with  Bertram  was  apparently  conducted,  on  both  sides, 
in  English.     But  to  Ilcrr  Gramm,  as  wo  have  seen.  Dr.  Stukclcy 
replied  in  a  Latin  epistle  as  elaborate  and  stately  as  his  own,  in  which 
he  refers  to  the  rare  and  seemingly  unique  Copenhagen  fragments  of  a 
newly  discovered  work  of  Richard,  monk  of  Westminster.     It  i.^no 
slight  apology  for  Dr.  Stukeley's  unquestioning  reception  of  Ber- 
tram's  transcripts  of  an  unheard-of  fourteenth  century  MS.,  that  its 
existence  was  thus  guaranteed  by  one  of  tho  very  highest  authontiea: 


28 

the  Custodian  of  the  Royal  Tih 

Copenhagen  to  certify  toTf.  '^'  ""^  '^e  fittest  of  «n 

MoMuo,;  anj  ™  7-,-      '  P^Posed  to  pureh..?-.'!'  "™™  >»  gel 
of  Be«^  ^fctuLo?;""  u""  '"'=■  ""°»«  ii"  r"  °/  ""  •"»'»■ 

P~i  uf   '.°™';,»"«'  We  ee.„  i,     o  ''l'f?b°"'°'  "«  ™».f..- 
'k»»ubje.,„fe,ab„„^™.<'°P»l«ge«  Bejel  l,i;^/;''"'''J~aj 

o     or  tne  wondrous 


-'-'?'«s*«e»«Sfc._ 


1 


««'  of  all  men  in 
rofessed  discovery, 
lettered  dignitarv 
fo'-e  Dr.  Stukeley 
of  Westminster" 

fairlj  roused,  he 
'ge  ••  strove  to  get 
for  the  British 
P'  of  the  whole, 
"nd  the  excuses 
)wappear,-_can- 

0  c'rcumstances. 
'an  in  the  same 
>reigner  about  a 
"^ergraduate,  is 
'e  or  raanufac- 
>rest  and  most 
s  Dr.  Stukeley 
ique,  lajr  readj 

Jt  had  been 
rned  secretary 

the  strongest 
g  secured  for 
n  of  Bertram, 
ter  his  death, 

I'estj's  privy 
lerr  Gramm 
ce  with  Dr. 
rtram  could 

1  we,  then, 
■riminis  in 
'%  palmed 
>ore  or  less 
'or  a  whole 
history? 
ret  'Mittle 
wondrous 


BIOABDVS  OOKINENSId.  29 

history  of  Roman  Britain,  were  not  transmitted  to  Dr.  Stukeloy  till 
after  the  death  of  Mr.  Gramm  ;  nor  indeed  was  it  till  after  that  event 
that  Bertram  professed  to  have  "  at  length,  with  some  diflSiculty,  got 
the  manuscript  into  his  own  hands." 

It  is  perhaps  a  bold  hypothesis  to  conceive  of  one  in  the  posicion  of 
the  Rojal  Librarian  bearing  any  share  in  a  literary  forgery.  But  the 
age  was  characterised  by  singularly  loose  ideas  on  such  subjects  ;  and 
the  part  he  is  shown  to  hove  taken  in  the  correspondence  is  equally 
inexplicable,  whether  we  suppose  that  a  genuine  MS.  did  exist,  about 
which  he  gave  himself  no  further  trouble,  or  that  a  hoax  was  being 
perpetrated  on  English  scholars  in  which  he  bore  a  part.  Had  the 
Latin  of  the  commentary  been  as  creditable  to  the  scholarship  of  its 
reputed  author  as  the  enthusiasm  of  its  first  editors  represented  it  to  be, 
we  might  have  been  tempted  to  trace  in  it  the  hand  of  Dr.  Stukeley's 
"prolix  and  elaborate"  Latin  correspondent.  But  in  reality  the 
portions  of  the  Tractate  not  made  up  of  quotations,  are,  as  has  been 
already  said,  very  much  in  the  stylo  of  Latin  to  be  expected  from  the 
Anglo-Danish  undergraduate.  Assuming,  therefore,  his  ability  to  pro- 
duce the  Latin  commentary,  his  familiarity  with  the  English  language 
rendered  him  otherwise  well  fitted  for  the  task.  As  to  Mr.  Gramm, 
he  had  been  in  England,  visited  the  Universities,  was  remembered  by 
Mr.  Martin  Folkes  as  a  learned  foreigner,  and  possibly  carried  away 
with  him  reminiscences  of  its  antiquarian  enthusiasts  which  bore  fruit  of 
a  kind  then  cultivated  on  thj  tree  of  knowledge.  The  writings  of  Dr. 
Stukeley  are  seasoned  with  a  suflBeicnt  stock  of  credulous  fancy  to 
provoke  even  a  grave  privy  councillor  into  lending  a  helping  hand  at  a 
trial  of  his  gullibility.  If,  on  the  contrary,  we  suppose  him  to  have 
been  Bertram's  dupe  and  tool,  he  must  Lave  proved  even  more  gi:Ilible 
than  the  English  antiquary. 

As  to  the  motives  which  induced  the  chief  culprit  to~carry  out  his 
fraud  with  consistent  pertinacity,  they  need  not  greatly  perplex  us.  It 
was  a  work  of  time :  begun  probably  with  no  deliberate  purpose  of 
carrying  it  to  the  culpable  extent  it  ultimately  reached.  Bertram's 
first  letter  was  probably  the  mere  hoax  of  a  clever,  but  thoughtless 
undergraduate.  But  for  the  opportune  death  of  Hans  Gramm, — what- 
ever the  nature  of  his  share  in  the  correspondence  may  have  been, — 
it  may  be  presumed  that  the  later  stages  of  full-developed  imposture 
would  never  have  been  reached.  But  when  Dr.  Stukeley  settled  in 
London,  "  began  to  think  of  the  manuscript,"  and  became  "solicitoua 


-  iilWHJiiniili.mmiufi   i.iuin,i|i,|innii 


30 


BIOARDUS  OOaiMENSIS. 


about  Richard  of  Westminster,"  his  Copenhagen  correspondent  had  to 
choose  between  confessing,  and  persisting  in  the  forgery ;—  and  how 
many  subsequent  pages  of  antiquarian  literature  depended  on  his  choice  I 
Dr.  Stukcley's  importunities  could  not  be  evaded;  and  once  committed 
to  his  dishonest  course,  Bertram  carried  it  out  consistently  to  the  end. 
His  success  may  have  delighted  or  alarmed  him,  according  to  the  aspect 
in  which  he  regarded  it;  but,  tried  by  the  standard  of  that  eighteenth 
century,  his  delight  is  more  probable  than  his  alarm.  He  had  achieved 
for  himself  a  name  among  European  scholars,  and  established  confiden- 
tial relations  with  foreign  literati ;  and  he  thenceforth  cultivated  them 
without  dread  of  exposure.  He  appears  to  have  attained  to  the  highest 
academic  honours,  and  to  have  maintained  a  friendly  correspondence 
with  his  learned  English  dupe  to  the  last.  So  late  as  Oct.  80,  1763> 
Stukeley  records  in  his  Diary :  "  I  received  from  my  friend.  Dr. 
Bertram,  3  copies  of  the  designs  of  the  Danish  Military,  colored  :  one 
for  the  King." 

In  the  age  of  Psalmanazar,  Macpherson,  and  Ghatterton ;  a  century 
which  gave  birth  to  the  "  Hardyknute,"  the  Ossian  Epics,  and  the 
Rowley  Poems;  to  "the  Double  Falsehood"  of  Theobald,  the  "Vorti- 
gern  and  Rowena"  of  Ireland,  and  so  much  else  of  a  like  kind :  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  the  fabricator  of  the  "  CommentarioH  geogra' 
phici  de  Situ  Britannia',  et  Stationum  quas  Homani  ipsi  in  ea  Insula 
scdificaverunt,"  ascribed  to  Richard  of  Cirencester,  had  his  abundant 
reward.  Not  only  Dr.  Stukeley  and  his  credulous  brother  antiquaries, 
among  whom  the  ingenious  but  fanciful  Whitaker  may  be  classed; 
but  the  incredulous  Ritson,  the  laborious  and  accurate  Roy,  with  some 
of  the  very  foremost  of  historians.  Gibbon,  Suhm,  Lappenberg,  and 
Lingard :  have  bowed  to  his  authority ;  and  a  whole  century  of  Euro- 
pean scholars  has  yielded  unquestioning  faith  to  his  bold  imposture. 


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